P5: The Dune Trickster
by Dim95
Summary: A new journey has just begun after defeating the God of Control. Immersed in an alternative timeline where humanity is ruled by a feudal monarchy, and where intrigues and conspiracies go hand in hand, the Trickster has the mission of protecting a young nobleman who is predestined in saving humanity and his mother in the dangerous desert world of Dune.
1. Chapter 1

**After having published and corrected the story of A Conversation between Messiah a few days ago, I decided to give a little more expansion to this saga that is Dune with combining with the universe of the Persona saga.**

**This story takes place in Dune's first book with some touches of the David Lynch movie. Besides that this 2020 premieres the remake that can possibly be a success or a failure, who knows.**

**All reviews and opinions are welcome.**

**The events take place at the end of Persona 5, not Royal.**

**Enjoy reading it.**

**Pd: The Chaos Threat is in development in its final chapters.**

* * *

"It has been a while, Igor" had responded in a monotonous tone of Ren Amamiya to see again with slight surprise the elongated mysterious old man who had met the previous year who had put him on a supernatural adventure ... not to mention that the elder named Igor had been possessed by an entity created by the distorted thoughts that he had to kill in summoning his maximum Persona in the final battle on New Year's Eve in Shibuya.

Igor gave him a grandfather smile happy to see a grandson who had no time to see.

"It has also been a pleasure to see you again, young Amamiya" the old man's tone was kind and altruistic, mixed with a bit of roughness. Unlike his state possessed by Yaldabaoth, who was doing it as a cold and mysterious individual, his true attitude filled him with great confidence and happiness when compared as if he were his own grandfather.

Her gray cobalt eyes landed on a familiar face as well, a girl.

"Hello, Lavenza"

The girl, called Lavenza, smiled sweetly at Ren's words in recognizing her. The girl's age was with the naked eye between fourteen or fifteen, depending on the perspective of the observer. Her skin was like porcelain and her delicate features enhanced with her golden eyes and her blond hair platinum with a matching headband adorned with white butterflies and yellow roses. She wore a blue dress with black sleeves and a focused jet with velvet buttons and the logo of a bronze butterfly in the center. She wore a dark cotton trousers that reached his thigh, white shoes and black sneakers.

There was no doubt that Lavenza's appearance was beautiful, knowing from her experience that she had been separated into two halves known as Justine and Caroline who played the role of jailers and guards under the orders of a possessed Igor, but everything had been resolved. when he beat them both, and with it, the twins returned to their true original form by being fused by the guillotine, becoming the beautiful assistant before him.

Lavenza, who was next to Igor, made an elegant reference by tilting his infant body with a kind of bound tome held in his right arm.

"It is a pleasure to see you again in the Velvet Room, Trickster," she said tenderly in her voice. Ren knew when she called him "my Trickster" he could recognize a blush and a loving tone when he spoke, although he ignored it without giving it relevance, indifferent to his feelings she had, as well as the twins.

Ren nodded silently with his head, and looked around. I was in the Velvet Room, a place between dream and reality, mind and matter ... although with a different structure.

He did not have the familiar form of the prison when he had woken up for the first time that he was the living representation of his heart as a prisoner imprisoned for his marginalized situation, but it was a spacious square room with polished blue indigo walls with chandeliers illuminated by the whiteness of C¡candles and four doors in each on the left and right sides. Behind Igor was a tall mahogany bookcase full of books glued to the wall with gleaming windows at both ends of the bookcase, as well as four ivory pillars in the corners of the square room. The floor was full of tiles of different colors of blue in asymmetrical positions, different from the stone floor that was composed of the old version of the Velvet Room that was a prison.

Another thing he noticed, was that the elongated nose old man was sitting on a sofa lined with a velvety blue with brown edges and golden contours, with both arms prostrated on a circular table covered by a light blue tablecloth with an indigo round edge which stood out for the brightness of a crystal as a candlestick held in an almond ceiling. There were three armchairs with the same color as the sofa, and the one in the middle was where Ren was sitting.

"... It seems that the Velvet Room has changed since my departure," he said with fascination.

Igor laughed humorously.

"My dear and young guest, the Velvet Room changes according to how you feel inside your heart. Yours represented a prison because you were previously a prisoner of destiny, after your journey has ended with the death of God of Control, the room underwent a change by being recognized that you are no longer prisoners of anyone, but a soul free from ties with the perspective of making your own decisions"

"... I see" the young nodded. That was a year ago when Yaldabaoth invaded the Velvet Room and merged it with the Metaverse, serving as a basis for monitoring his activities as a pawn in his chess game. Now, the Velvet Room was free when the Metaverse disappeared with the death of the deity. Free forever, back to the immaterial unconscious of dreams and matter. "But ... why did you bring me? Did something happen?"

"In fact, yes," replied the owner sincerely. "How will you see, young Amamiya, your performance in opposing the machinations of Yaldabaoth and your great rebellious spirit of giving humanity a second chance has fascinated me. Fate put you to the test, but you overcame them, not only, but with the help of your friends. Difficult situations were presented to you during the journey of your dangerous journey that was your rehabilitation, and you did it, even if it was necessary to play your life. You have a brave soul, the spirit of a rebel who does not know surrender to an authoritarian and corrupt system The reason why you are appointed the Trickster is because you are not affiliated with the Law and Chaos, but you walk on both sides without important such trivial matters as is good and evil. Humans are a very curious and intriguing species, especially taking the reins of their own destinies. You are the exception where you make up free will, Ren Amamiya"

Ren felt flattered by the philosophical words in remembering his role as the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Heart in reforming the corrupt and undesirable who dominated society in Shibuya.

"Thank you," he said cordially. "I am grateful for what you said ... Although, it could mean that my performance in the past is the reason for my call, right?"

"Your deduction and insight is admirable, a trait that all tricksters have," said Igor, smiling. "As you said is true: your call had to be requested by me under a question I had in mind"

"And what is that doubt?" Ren asked curiously.

"It is about whether it is possible that the scenarios predetermined by fate could be changed with just the intervention of a singularity ... in other words; an individual with the ability to choose his own path according to his own point of view"

Ren stared at him, trying to understand what Igor was trying to get, and he understood, albeit with insecurity.

"... Is there a scenario you have seen to intervene?"

Igor laughed again.

"Don't stop impressing me, my dear guest, and the answer is yes. You see, the Velvet Room is not only located between sleep and matter, but it can also take you to other alternate realities."

Ren was stunned, but he recomposed himself at the same time; there was no need to look for logic in a strange supernatural room that only works by esoteric laws taken from the fantasy context. His experience in navigating the Metaverse extended his mind to such an extent that anything out of the ordinary should not surprise him.

"And what is the alternate reality that you saw as a starting point for my trip?" the teenager replied by going straight to the point without asking a silly question.

"It is a reality that caught my attention. In it, humanity had reached the technological level of being able to create its own domain in the galaxy. It is basically an empire ruled by the creation of feudalism and nobility after having finished a war against artificial intelligences for years in the past in that reality. Smart computers are prohibited, and only the mind is used as a guide by the vast human-dominated galaxy. Navegators of the space cruisers use a narcotic that allows them to expand the mind until reaching a state of nirvana, as well as a sisterhood of women similar to the nuns of this reality. But, like every monarchical state, there are always conflicts"

"Intrigues, bribes, conspiracies, secret alliances, fixed alliances, democratic corruption for the high nobility, and murders," Ren added, listing the acts that had led to the collapse of all empires in the past, there were some who fell by barbarian invasions such as the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire that reigned in barbarism and anarchy; others due to diseases and environmental disasters such as droughts, floods and lack of food. It was not surprising that humanity resorted to its old self-destructive habits regardless of the cost of its own life.

"Exactly, young Amamiya," Igor nodded. "Of the morning events that every empire is experiencing, a secret plan had been devised to bring this empire of humanity to a golden age, perpetrated by the brotherhood of women that had already been explained previously"

"A plan of salvation?" Ren asked, frowning; Sometimes small upper-class groups are able to form their own secret lodges to lead the rotten state of society in a new "Renaissance" highway, but they were ruled by the strongest, while the weak were trampled like ants and subjugated by abruptness. .

The Conspiracy, created by Masayoshi Shido, was the living example that secret groups are only interested in themselves and not others. It was a relief that they no longer existed after the reform of Shido and its members after the collapse of the Metaverse and the dissolution of the Phantom Thieves.

"By your expression you could say that this_ 'plan of salvation'_ is only a pretext to gain power as it was the Conspiracy" corroborated Igor, "and you could say that it is very true. This brotherhood had prioritized the plan to take the The flag baton at the right time "paused, and then smiled vivaciously. "But there was a change of plans"

Ren looked at him in silence, with an interrogative expression without muttering a word from his mouth.

"It was assumed that one of them would serve as the procreator of a female to link her with a man from a rival family, and thereby, beget the superior being of her reproduction program that would be her culmination of more than ten thousand years," he continued speaking Igor in significant tone. "But the woman was deeply in love with her fiance, and she gave him a baron as a sign of his love and faithfulness."

Ren laughed at that.

"... Bad luck for the sisterhood in seeking his superior being"

"It was," Igor told him. "The whole planned scenario had been for nothing, the result of making a decision that changed everything, and it goes without saying that the situation was about to get even worse"

He tilted his head.

"The boy's family with abilities still semi-awake, are about to be sent to the desert world where the used narcotic of the empire is extracted, but that was a deadly trap where they would be killed, orchestrated by the sovereign of the empire and the enemies"

Ren stiffened.

"... That shouldn't be good, why would the emperor do such a thing?"

"It is due to jealousy of his relative who gained greater popularity among the nobles and commoners because of his character as fair and honest ruler. The sovereign allied himself with the enemies of his relative to see him eliminated."

The young growled angrily. Death among consecrated relatives who represented a threat to climb the highest rank in the nobility was something that was well documented in the historical texts of the monarchy on Earth, including today, such as Kunikazu Okumura, father of Haru, who used it the services of mental closings by Goro Akechi in eradicating business competition, and then being killed later in the press conference in witnessing his participation with Shido.

"... And that's where I came in," Ren pointed out, and Igor nodded, affirming the truth.

"Exactly. You, Trickster, who managed to thwart the plans of the God of Control in his plan to dominate the earthly plane, are the one to participate in this dangerous mission where it is possible to modify the scenario predetermined by destiny and change it to another direction. Do you accept your order?"

Ren thought about it in silence, meditating on the proposal that the owner of the Velvet Room had given him.

"Can it mean that my previously signed contract for a year is still standing?"

That was not answered by Igor, but the assistant, Lavenza, taking the floor in a delicate and firm voice.

"The contract signed by the master Igor on your first time when you were summoned specified that you had the responsibility of carrying out your previous performance that was rehabilitation and liberal to the mysterious calamity that afflicted humanity from the shadows. Having defeated God of Control, your contract has been terminated by giving the world the freedom to make its own decisions. As a reward for your actions we gave you the World Arcana by representing the social bonds that you have formed throughout your trip. With everything you have done, your spirit of rebellion still tells you that you wanted to return to your old job as the leader of the Phantom Thieves"

In that I could not deny it; Returning to his old life in facing the Shadows, entering the Palaces and exploring unexplored areas in Mementos was something he always longed for when he had returned to his hometown in the van accompanied by his friends. He had Morgana as a roommate when he told his parents that he would be responsible for his care, but that feeling of nostalgic invaded him.

He wanted to be a Joker, he wanted to go back to having those adrenalines where he always threw himself into danger with his Persona, his spirit of rebellion that was awakened deep inside him in the Kamoshida Palace, Arsene.

He remembered all the moments he had lived with his Persona during his exciting journey along with his band of marginal friends of society.

He faced the corrupt system that dominated society, put the bad guys to tell their misdeeds to the public; They were feared and hated, loved and praised by people who believed in them as heroes.

He and his friends were the rebels who opposed the strict authority of the law ... but now, it was over. Those moments were transformed into memories that would remain in legends.

After invoking his maximum Persona, Satanael, everything ended for him and for the group with the death of Yaldabaoth.

There was no longer Metaverse, no Personas, no Palaces and no Shadows to reform; It was only adults who now had control of taking society to a possible future.

"Trickster, do you agree to return to your old life?" The voice of the assistant girl was relaxed and patient, waiting for her question.

That was his chance, the opportunity to return to his life as a phantom thieve ... he would return to danger once again.

"I ..." Ren breathed, considering that he would be responsible for the decision he would make with enough maturity of a teenager who went through a stage in his life that made him strong. A look of determination formed in his expression when he finally spoke: "I accept" his countenance curved into a smile that only those threw themselves into danger. "This trickster accepts the client's order"

* * *

**Alternate timeline.**

**Year 10191 After Guild.**

**Planet Kaitain, headquarters of the House Corrino, capital of the Empire.**

The Opal Imperial Palace was home to all the emperors of the Corrino dynasty who had ruled the Empire for more than fifty years in Kaitain as government capital. It was located in an area overlooking the shore of the night sea and the illuminated city of Corrinth by the glow of the lights of the buildings in the distance, bathing the night with its luminescence, like the starry sky, the spectacular view of its rings and the milky four moons that were suspended in the sea of the oxideral space.

Its construction was majestic, with pale ocher walls well detailed by the masons and domes of a greenish jade on top of its flat roofs with sharp-pointed needles. The crystal windows reflected the daylight of the stars and the four moons in the sky. There were towers attached to the wide-sized quadrangular building that constituted the Opal Imperial Palace, as well as its many rooms, ballrooms, libraries, private gardens, work rooms, among other details that every monarchical palace had.

The interior that formed the Great Imperial Hall of Audiences was spacious, with rectangular diameters surrounded by golden walls, ivory pillars at each corner, a tiled floor with symmetrical details and a brass ceiling with ornate arches with some crystal chandeliers of different colors that hung on the ceiling. The light of the lamps gave a great intensity to illuminate the crowded room of the high officials of the Empire who talked among themselves.

Among the imperial officials that encompassed the Great Hall, high and low-ranking figures stood out in the military hierarchy who wore gray uniforms and honorary decorations that always proudly carried their ascended rank. There were consuls, speakers, pages, servants, secretaries, administrators and the imperial guard who served as bodyguards and protectors of the Corrino royal family for several generations.

But the most prominent figure in the Great Imperial Hall of Audiences was the supreme ruler who maintained the power and autonomy of the Empire: Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV of the Imperial House Corrino.

Shaddam IV was described as being an older man, although he looked thirty-odd in physical appearance and rigid in stature, as every ruler of a sovereign empire must be. His face was thin and elegant, combined with his formally cut red hair and eyes that resembled a predatory bird that is ready to tear his prey in case he insults him in the face. He wore a dark green uniformed outfit with yellow shoulder pads, gold buttons, a star-shaped buckle on his turtleneck and a dark slant at an angled angle.

Usually, Shaddam IV always had political talks about the welfare of the Empire with his councilors and military chiefs at the scheduled meetings held in the Great Imperial Hall. He often talked about the production of imported and exported products from the CHOAM company through the use of the Spacing Guild transport ships that traveled throughout the galaxy through the use of the melange spice. He played with what some trivial issue with the representative members of the Landsraad Council of Noble Houses, whether for clarifications and other people's disputes that usually happens as normal for him.

Although, this meeting I had orchestrated was different ...

"My lord" respectfully approached a servant who had bowed his head before him. "A spacecraft Guild ship has just arrived in the Imperial Spaceport. The third-grade Navigant requests his hearing immediately; he says it is an important matter."

_'Did something bad come up?'_ Shaddam IV thought, intrigued and fearful.

"Make them pass" he requested directly, and the servant agreed to abandon him and do what he was told. He turned to everyone in the room, and shouted with authority. "This is a private meeting. Be kind to leave the place until everything is over."

They all obeyed him by leaving through the two doors in rows that were located on both sides where the Golden Lion Throne was located.

The room was empty in a second, devoid of all human activity that previously existed, including that of his daughter, Irulan, being accompanied by his ladies upon leaving the place. She wanted answers because of her confused expression, and found it difficult to explain her complicated situation.

_'Why did the Guild send me a Navigator?'_ he told himself internally, immersed in his confused thoughts. _'The spice of Arrakis? No, it won't be that ... or maybe it would be that they sensed my plan' _that terrified him deeply.

The doors in front of him had opened automatically with his typical high-pitched sound he heard, and from the corridor a battleship of jet surface entered, followed by the administrative staff in their gray uniforms with the symbol of the infinite anonymous of the Guild stamped on the sleeves.

Shaddam IV felt rigid in the presence of the representatives of the Spacing Guild, especially the administrators, the branch where they made the necessary decisions in the short and long term to maintain the Guild as a functional organization. Administrators serve as a link between Navigators and humans with the use of a microphone to allow communication between the two, while they are altered by the use of the melange species that allow them to see paths invisible to the mowed human mind.

"We're alone?" He spoke seriously and roughly a bald administrator of thin stature with a tube in his nose, holding the microphone in his hand.

"Yes," Emperor Padishah assured him without stuttering or being nervous when speaking.

The administrator holding the microphone nodded toward the battleship without wheels without a sharp squeak, similar to the automatic sound of an open door. The armored walls were unfolded, revealing a pond filled with orange gas where an elongated, vaguely humanoid figure with fluttered legs and extremely fanned membranous hands was suspended in the air. The V-shaped mouth and flattened nose seemed small before his gigantic face that looked at him with deep dark bluish eyes stained in the sclertics that judged him.

Shaddam IV swallowed. The Spacing Guild Navigators were mutated by the consumption and exposure to large amounts of the melange spice to allow them to develop a sense of orientation and perception when used to guide space cruisers safely through space without the use of intelligent computers, something that was prohibited during the Great Convention after the end of the Butlerian Jihad against the Thinking Machines.

The reason why this Navigator in front of him looked completely mutated was because of the level of extreme and prolonged expansion that causes their bodies to atrophy and mutate over time, lengthening their heads and limbs. The strange eyes of the Navigator was due to the first sign of metabolic change induced by melange is seen in the eyes, since the narcotic stains the sclera and the iris to a dark blue tone called "blue in blue", a side effect to all spice junkies.

Those that have been mutated by the changes of the spice, are put in ponds where they inhale massive amounts of orange spice gas or swallow spice pills, which would allow them to see over great distances from space, and even, have prophetic abilities mutated Navigators can trace safe courses for ships across large distances from space by premonitory determination of unsafe routes and identification of a safe one when folding Holtzman Engines.

Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV would have felt safe to have his faithful Truthsayer, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam of the Brotherhood Bene Gesserit by her side, but she was busy with other matters that deserved to be observed ... typical of the secrecy of the witches Bene Gesserit.

"We have folded the space since Ix" answered the Navigator through the microphone that was implanted in the center of the glass, sounding like the hoot of a robotic recording.

"Yes," Shaddam IV said again in a monotonous tone. "How was the trip?"

"Many machines in Ix" the Navigator replaced evenly. "New machines"

"Yes," he repeated again, where his nervousness glimpsed in response. Ix and Richese were the only planets where they rejected the law of not manufacturing intelligent machines according to the rules of the Great Convention, which were seen by Landsraad as despots and arrogant, accusing them of violating the restrictions of Butlerian Jihad. Sometimes the Spacing Guild was afraid that the new machines upgraded by both planets would take away their monopoly of spaceflight.

"Better than Richese's" Guild Navigator's tone became bleak and serious. "You are transparent. I see many things. I see plans within other plans."

"Is there a problem? I usually have them when you come"

"The answer is in the problem. I see two facing houses, the House Atreides and the House Harkonnen. I see you behind it"

"Yes" Shaddam IV could not belittle his interrogator's perception; No one can lie to a Navigator in front.

"However ..." continued the Navigator, "... there is a slight anomaly"

Emperor Padishah wrinkled his forehead.

"An anomaly? Like an anomaly?"

"Both the present and the future are blurred before the prophetic vision that the spice confers on me. It is like the sea, it undulates with the passage of strong currents that does not reveal anything. I know that this anomaly has to do with your plan, Emperor Padishah, you must tell us why"

"Duke Leto Atreides is very popular in Landsraad, so much so that many are thinking that sooner or later he would rule the Empire if I did not obtain a male heir to continue the lineage of the Imperial House Corrino as the true rulers. Seeing this situation, I perceived him as a threat, he being my cousin, I have ordered him to extract the spice from Arrakis, replacing his enemies, the Harkonnens. Duke Atreides will agree on the power he will believe he will obtain. Then the Harkonnens back to Arrakis to attack the Atreides by surprise. I have promised Baron Vladimir Harkonnen five legions of my troops Sardaukars"

"Do you think the Harkonnen will free you from the Atreides?" the Navigator questioned.

"Yes," Emperor Padishah said sincerely, "but what you said about this anomaly makes me doubt about it."

"The spice must flow!" exclaimed the Navigator. "The spice gave me an accelerated evolution of four thousand years! You have lived a longevity thanks to the spice. Give the Sisterhood Bene Gesserit its mysterious abilities. The spice allows us to see the routes in space. Without us, the Empire would be scattered on isolated planets. You would be lost. The anomaly we perceive comes from the plan to get rid of the Atreides, especially its member, Paul Atreides"

"You meant Duke Leto Atreides's father"

"I mean Paul Atreides," the Navigator corrected fiercely. "We want him dead"

Shaddam IV was speechless, almost speechless to ask why the male firstborn of Duke Atreides should die.

"I haven't said anything," said the Guild Navigator, making clear the agreement between them. "I have not been here"

"I understand," Emperor Padishah nodded, realizing that he would do his job.

With the agreement formed, the Navigator and the administrators left the room, where they disappeared when the door closed.

_'Why would they want to see the Duke's son dead?'_ he wondered, even knowing that this question would be around his thoughts without even looking for a logic. But one thing was clear, the Spacing Guild was not interested in disputes between nobles or imperial policy, only what mattered to them was the production of spice and payment for their services regardless of cost, including if it came from Emperor Padishah of the Known Universe.

* * *

**Planet Caladan, headquarters of the House of Atreides.**

In the week that preceded the departure to Arrakis; When the frenzy of the last preparations reached an almost unbearable level, an old woman came to visit the boy's mother, Paul.

It was a soft night in Castel Caladan, and the ancient stones that had been the home of the Atreides for twenty-seven generations were impregnated with that damp freshness that foreshadowed a change of time.

The old woman was introduced through a secret door and led through the vaulted passage to the boy's room, where she could observe him for a moment while lying in his bed.

In the faint light of a suspension lamp that floated near the ground, Paul, half asleep, barely distinguished the bulky motionless silhouette in the doorway, and that of his mother, a step further back. The old woman was like the shadow of a witch; with her hair like cobweb cobwebs around her dark features and her eyes shining like precious stones.

"Isn't she a little small for her age, Jessica?" asked the old woman looking like a witch. His voice whistled and vibrated like that of a poorly tuned baliset.

Paul's mother responded with her soft contralto voice:

"It is well known that among the Atreides growth is somewhat late, Your Reverence"

"It is said, it is said" the old woman hissed. "But he's fifteen already"

"Yes, Your Reverence"

"He's awake and he's listening to us," said the old woman. "Cunning boy" she laughed. "But the nobility needs cunning. And if it really is the Kwisatz Haderach ... well ..."

In the shadows of his bed, Paul narrowed his eyes to reduce them in two lines. Two bright ovals like those of a bird, the old woman's eyes, seemed to dilate and flare as they stuck in his.

"Sleep well, cunning boy," the old witch murmured. "Tomorrow you will need all your powers to face my gom jabbar"

And he disappeared, dragging his mother out and closing the door with a thud.

Paul remained awake, wondering what had happened. _'What will gom jabbar be?'_ Among all the confusion of that period of change, the old woman was the strangest thing she could see.

_'Your Reverence ...'_ That woman had addressed her mother as a servant rather than as what she was: a Lady Bene Gesserit, the concubine of a duke and the mother of the ducal heir.

_'Is a gom jabbar something of Arrakis that I must know before we go there?'_ he wondered thoughtfully.

He syllable those strange words he heard: gom jabbar ... Kwisatz Haderach.

There were so many things to learn. Arrakis was a place so different from Caladan that Paul's mind was lost to his thought alone.

Thufir Hawat, his father's Assassin Master, had explained: his mortal enemies, the Harkonnen, had resided in Arrakis for eighty years, ruling the planet in a quasi-feud under a contract with the CHOAM Company for the extraction of the geriatric spice, the melange. Now, the Harkonnen were to be replaced by the House Atreides in full fief ... an apparent victory for Duke Leto. But, as Thufir said, this appearance contained a mortal danger, since Duke Leto was popular with the Great Houses of Landsraad.

"A man who is too popular provokes the jealousy of the powerful," Thufir had said in his usual scholarly and wise tone.

_'Arrakis ... Dune ... the Planet of the Desert'_

Paul fell asleep again and dreamed in an arrakena cavern, with silent beings standing around him in the pale clarity of the balloons. Everything was solemn, like inside a cathedral, and I heard a faint sound, the drip-drip-drip of the water. Still dreaming, Paul knew however that when he woke he would remember everything. He always remembered his premonitory dreams... especially the strange alteration he had had when it began to get cloudy, almost unable to stabilize the images, as if it were some interference.

In the dream, the drops of water fell on a dark unknown cavernous pond, echoing low and faint. The waves formed in the pond, revealing images on an extensive sea of endless sand, then shifted to the image of a moon, a second moon, in the middle of a starry night sky.

_'Arrakis ... Dune ... the Planet of the Desert'_

The drops fell again, and an inexplicable distortion species appeared, and mysteriously, the distortion showed two figures. The first figure was that of a black and white cat with a yellow leash around its neck, while the second was a teenager. He calculated him as a few years older and of thin complexion, with ruffled black hair, curly, and dark gray eyes. The outfit worn by the teenager was strange, as if it were something used in plays, such as a thief with an inexplicable white mask with black stripes that covered his eyes.

Another leaked more and the distortion changed, revealing the face of a beautiful young woman who looked at him with deep bluish eyes without the whitish sclera.

_"Tell me about your world, Usul,"_ the girl asked in a soft voice that made her shiver.

The dream faded.

He woke up in the warm bed ... and thought. That world of Castel Caladan, where he had no games or companions of his age, perhaps did not deserve the slightest sadness. Dr. Yueh, his preceptor, had occasionally implied that the caste system of the faufreluches was not as rigid as in Arrakis. On the planet there were people who lived on the edge of the desert without a military leader to govern them: the so-called Fremen, elusive as the desert wind, which does not even figure in the census of the imperial records.

_'Arrakis ... Dune ... the Planet of the Desert'_

Paul felt his own tensions and decided to practice one of the bodily-mental exercises his mother had taught him. Three rapid inspirations triggered the responses: it entered a state of floating perception ... adjusted its consciousness ... aortic dilation ... away from any non-focused mechanism ... deliberate awareness ... blood enrichment and irrigation of the regions overloaded ... nobody gets food-security-freedom only with instinct ... Animal consciousness does not extend beyond a given moment, nor does it admit the possibility of extinction of its victims ... the animal destroys and does not produces ... animal pleasures remain locked in the level of sensations without reaching perception ... the human being needs a graduated scale through which to see the universe ... a selectively focused consciousness, this forms its scale ... The integrity of the body depends on the nervous-blood flow, sensitive to the needs of each of the cells ... all beings-cells-things are non-permanent ... all struggle to maintain the flow of permanence. ..

The lesson passed and passed through Paul's floating consciousness.

When dawn touched the window with its yellowish light, Paul felt it through his closed eyelids; He opened them, hearing the echoes of the activity of the castle, and fixed them on the drawing of the coffered ceiling.

The door to the hall opened and his mother appeared, with her dark bronze hair fastened, forming like a crown by a black ribbon, her impassive oval face and her green eyes with a solemn expression.

"Are you awake?" she said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," he said, and watched her, studying her, and noticed the tension in the movement of her shoulders as she chose her clothes from the hangers in the closet. Anyone else would not have noticed that tension, but he had been educated in the Bene Gesserit Way ... through the most thorough observation. His mother turned, presenting him with a semiceremonia jacket with the red hawk, emblem of the Atreides, embroidered in his pocket.

"Hurry up and get dressed" she ordered as every mother does to her when they wake up from their dreams. "The Reverend Mother is waiting"

"Once I dreamed about her," Paul said. "Who is?"

"She was my tutor at the Bene Gesserit school. She is the Emperor's Truesayer. And, Paul ..." her mother hesitated. "You have to tell him about your dreams"

"I will. Is she the reason they gave us Arrakis?"

"They haven't given us Arrakis" Jessica shook a pair of pants and placed them next to the coat, next to the bed. "You must not wait for the Reverend Mother"

Paul sat down and ran his arms around his knees.

"What is gom jabbar?"

The training he had received made him perceive again his mother's invisible excitement, a nervous motivation he recognized as fear.

Jessica approached the window, ran the curtains and for a moment looked, across the river, Mount Syubi.

"You'll soon know what gom jabbar is ... too soon," she said in a distant tone.

Once again, he noticed the fear in his voice, and felt intrigued.

Jessica spoke without turning:

"The Reverend Mother is waiting in my classrooms. Please, hurry up."

* * *

Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam was sitting in an upholstered chair, watching mother and son approach. On either side, the windows opened on the curve of the river that ran south and the farmland of the Atreides, but the Reverend Mother ignored the landscape. That morning his years were heavy, ballasting his shoulders. He made that trip through space responsible for it, associated with that abominable Spacing Guild and its dark designs. But that was a mission that required the personal attention of a Bene Gesserit-of-the-Look. And not even Emperor Padishah's own Truesayer could decline such responsibility when duty called her.

_'Damn Jessica!'_ the Reverend Mother exclaimed to herself. _'If at least we had begotten a girl as she had been ordered!'_

Jessica stopped three steps from the chair and sketched a small bow, with a slight movement of her left hand pinching just her skirt. Paul bent in a brief inclination, as his dance teacher had taught him to do ... to use it on occasions "when there is no doubt about the rank of the other person."

The nuances of Paul's attitude did not go unnoticed by the Reverend Mother.

"It's wise, Jessica," the Reverend Mother observed in analytical detail.

_'What do you fear?'_ Paul wondered.

Gaius Helen Mohiam studied Paul every detail of him in one glance: the oval face like Jessica's, though more determined. The hair was black like those of the Duke but with the line of the forehead of the maternal grandfather, the one who should not be named, as well as his nose, fine and disdainful; and the green and penetrating eyes of Paulus Atreides, the Old Duke, his paternal grandfather already dead for years in a duel against a bull Salusan.

_'He was a man who appreciated the power of bravery ... even in death,'_ the Reverend Mother thought.

"Education is one thing," she said, "the basic ingredients another. We'll see" her old eyes glared at her former student with a hard stare. "Leave us. I order you to practice meditation in peace"

Jessica withdrew her hand from Paul's shoulder.

"Your Reverence, I ..."

"Jessica, you know what to do"

Paul looked up at his mother, perplexed, and watched as she stiffened.

"Yes of course"

Paul looked back at the Reverend Mother. Courtesy, and the obvious power of the old woman over her mother, advised caution. However, he felt a rabid apprehension grow at the fear radiating from his mother.

"Paul ..." Jessica took a deep breath, "... this test you are going to undergo ... is important to me."

"Test?" He looked at her.

"Remember that you are the son of a duke," Jessica said. He turned and left the room in long strides, with a dry touch of her dress. The door closed solidly behind him.

Paul faced the old woman, dominating her irritation.

"Since when is Lady Jessica cast as if she were a servant?"

For a moment a smile was drawn at the angles of that old mouth.

"Jessica was my maid, boy, for fourteen years at school." She inclined her head. "And a good servant, I must recognize him. And now, you, come closer!"

The order was like a whiplash. Paul realized that he had obeyed even before he thought about it. _'She has used her voice against me,'_ he told himself, while the Reverend Mother stopped him with a gesture, close to her knees.

"See this?" The older woman took a green metal bucket between the folds of her clothes between the folds of her clothes. He turned it, and Paul saw that one of its sides was open ... dark and strangely scary. No light penetrated his open darkness.

"Put your right hand in this box," the woman ordered.

Fear seized Paul. He took a few steps back.

"Is that how you obey your mother?" The Reverend Mother's voice was of a dark sarcasm.

He faced the look of his bright bird eyes.

Slowly, aware of the compulsions that arose within him and he could not refuse, Paul put his hand inside the box. At first he felt a cold sensation as the darkness approached around his hand, then he felt the contact of the smooth metal in his fingers and a tingling, as if his hand went numb.

A raptor look appeared on the old woman's face. He pushed his right hand away from the box and put it, closed, next to Paul's neck. He saw a metallic flash and wanted to turn his head.

"Still!" she sentenced dryly.

_'She is using the Voice again!'_

She stared at his face again.

"I have the gom jabbar attached to your neck," said the Reverend Mother. "The gom jabbar, the worst enemy. It's a needle with a drop of poison on the tip. Be still! Don't move, or the poison will bite you."

Paul tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. He couldn't turn his attention away from that old wrinkled face, those bright eyes, those pale gums, those silver metal teeth that shone at every word.

"The son of a duke must know about poisons," she spoke. "It's something of our time, isn't it? The Musky, to poison your drink. The Aumas, to poison your food. Fast poisons, slow poisons and intermediates. This is a new one for you: gom jabbar. Just kill. to the animals"

Pride dominated Paul's fear.

"Do you intend to imply that the son of a duke is an animal?" I ask.

"Let's say I suggest you can be human," she said. "Don't move! I warn you, don't try to escape from my side. I'm old, but my hand can stick this needle in your neck before you can get away."

"Who you are?" Paul demanded, hissing. "How have you done to fool my mother and get me to leave me alone with you? Were you sent by the Harkonnen?"

"The Harkonnen? Of course not! Now, shut up" a dry finger touched his neck, and he had to stop his involuntary urge to escape. "Very well. You have passed the first test. Now, this is what is missing: if you remove your hand from the box, you will die. This is the only rule. Leave your hand in the box, and you will live. Take it away, and you will have a death fast"

Paul sighed deeply to avoid a shudder.

"If I call, in a moment this will be full of servants that they will fall on you, and you will be the one who will die"

"The servants will not go beyond where your mother is, guarding this door. You can be sure. Your mother survived this test. Now your turn has come. Sit honored. It is rare that we submit the boys to her."

Curiosity reduced Paul's fear to a controllable level. He had detected the truth in the old woman's words, he couldn't deny it. If her mother was out there on guard ... if it really was a test ... And whatever it was, she knew that she couldn't get away from her, caught by that hand near her neck: the gom jabbar. He brought to his mind the words of the Litany against Fear of the Bene Gesserit ritual, just as his mother had taught them: _'You will not know fear. The fear kills the mind. Fear is the little death that leads to total destruction. I will face my fear. It will allow it to pass over me and through me. And when it has passed, I will turn my inner eye to scrutinize its path. Wherever fear has passed there will be nothing. I'll only be'_

He felt the calm return to him and said:

"We're done with this, old woman"

"Old woman!" she shouted, amused. "You have courage, you can't refuse. Well, let's see this, my lord." She leaned toward him and her voice became a whisper. "You'll feel pain in your hand, and my gom jabbar will touch your neck ... and death will be as fast as the executioner's ax. Take your hand away, and the gom jabbar will kill you. Have you understood?"

"What is in the box?"

"Pain"

The stinging became more intense in his hand. He pursed his lips. _'How is it possible that this is a test?'_ he asked himself. The stinging became itchy.

"Have you heard of animals that devour a leg to escape a trap?" said the Reverend Mother. "That is the cunning that an animal would resort to. A human will remain caught in the trap, endure the pain and pretend to be dead to catch the hunter by surprise and kill him, and thus eliminate a danger to his species"

The itching increased in intensity, until burning.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I ask.

"To determine if you are human. Now, silence"

Paul closed his left hand tightly, while the burning sensation increased in the other hand. It grew slowly: heat and more heat ... and more heat. He felt the nails of his left hand dig into his palm. He tried to hold the fingers of his burning hand, but failed to move them.

"It is burning" he hissed.

"Silence!"

The pain rose up his arm. Sweat pierced his forehead. Every fiber in his body yelled at him to remove his hand from that burning pit ... but ... the gom jabbar. Without turning his head, he tried to move his eyes to see that terrible poison needle stalking his neck. He realized that he was panting and tried to control himself without it.

Pain!

His world emptied completely except his right hand immersed in that agony and that face furrowed with wrinkles that stared at him a few inches from his. His lips were so dry that it was hard to separate them.

_'Burn! Burn!'_

It seemed to him that the skin of that dying hand wrinkled and blackened, cracked, fell, leaving only charred bones.

And then everything stopped!

Like a switch that had cut off the flow of the current, the pain ceased. Paul felt his right arm tremble, sweat was still dripping all over his body.

"Enough is enough," the old woman murmured. "Kull wahad! No son of a woman had ever had to endure so much. It is as if he had wanted you to fail." She withdrew, pulling the gom jabbar from her neck.

"Take your hand out of the box, boy, and look at it"

He suppressed a shudder of pain, and stared at the dark hollow where his hand, as if moved by his own will, was stubborn to remain. The memory of pain prevented his movement. Reason whispered that he was not going to get more than a blackened stump from that box.

"Remove it!" she snapped.

He took his hand out of the box and looked at her, stunned. Not a sign. No sign of the agony suffered by his flesh. He raised his hand, turned it, distended his fingers.

"Nerve induction pain," she said. "I can not go around mutilating potential human beings. Anyway, there would be more than one who would give his hand to know the secret of this box" she took it and dipped it in the folds of her clothes.

"But the pain ..." Paul said.

"The pain" sipped loudly. "A human can master any nerve in the body"

Paul noticed that his left hand ached, opened it, and discovered four bleeding marks where the nails had stuck in his palm. He dropped his hand along his side and looked at the old woman.

"Did you do this to my mother?"

"Have you ever sifted sand?" she replied.

The tangential aggressiveness of his question triggered a higher level of consciousness in his mind. Sift the sand. He nodded.

"We, the Bene Gesserit, sift people to discover humans"

He raised his right hand, trying to find the memory of his pain.

"And that's it ... the pain?"

"I have observed you in your pain, boy. Pain is only the axis of the test. Your mother has taught you the way we observe. I have seen in you the signs of this teaching. Our test consists in provoking a crisis and observe"

The tone of his voice confirmed his words. Paul said:

"It is true"

She looked at him._ 'Perceive the truth! Maybe it's the one we're looking for? Maybe it's really the one we're looking for?'_ She restrained her excitement, reminding herself: Hope obfuscates observation.

"You know when people believe in what they say," he said.

"I know"

The harmonics of his voice confirmed his experienced ability. She perceived it and said:

"Maybe you are the Kwisatz Haderach. Sit down, little brother, here at my feet."

"I'd rather stand up"

"Your mother sat at my feet, once"

"I am not my mother"

"You hate me a little, huh?" The Reverend Mother looked at the door and called: "Jessica!"

The door opened and Jessica appeared in the doorway, looking at the room with hard eyes. They softened at the sight of Paul. He managed to smile weakly.

"Jessica, have you ever stopped hating me?" the old woman asked.

"I love you and I hate you at the same time," Jessica said. "Hate ... is because of the pain that I can never forget. Love ... is ..."

"Only the basic facts," said the old woman, but her voice was soft. "You can enter now, but be quiet. Close that door and make sure nobody interrupts us."

Jessica entered the room, closed the door and froze, leaning on it._ 'My son lives,'_ she thought, relieved._ 'My son lives and is ... human. I knew ... but ... live. Now I can still live' _The door contact was hard and real against his back. Everything in the room was immediate and put pressure on his senses. _'My son lives'_

Paul looked at his mother. He has told the truth. He would have wanted to leave and be alone and think about that experience, but he knew that he could not do so before receiving permission. The old woman had acquired a kind of power over him. They have told the truth. His mother had passed that same test. The purpose of all this must be terrible ... the pain and fear had been terrible. And he knew the nature of all that, the aims that are pursued at all costs, those that bring with them the urgency of being carried out. Paul felt that this purpose had been inoculated. But I still didn't know exactly what it was.

"Someday, boy," said the old woman, "you too must wait outside a door like her. It takes a lot of will to do it."

Paul looked at his hand through which the pain had passed, then looked at the Reverend Mother. The sound of her voice contained a differentiation that distinguished her from all the other voices that had heard her experience. The words had been defined, bright. He felt that any question he had asked would have received an answer that would have lifted him out of his fleshly world toward something bigger.

"Why do you look for humans?" I ask.

"To make them free"

"Free?" repeated

"There was a time when men dedicated their thinking to machines, hoping they would set them free. But this only allowed other men with machines to enslave them."

"_'You will not build a machine similar to the mind of man'_," cited Paul.

"This is what the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible say," she said. "But in reality the Orange Catholic Bible. I should have said: _'You will not build a machine that imitates the human mind.'_ Have you studied the Mentat at your service?"

"I studied with Thufir Hawat"

"The Great Revolution has freed us from our crutches," said the old woman. "It has forced human minds to develop. Schools were founded to train human talents"

"The Bene Gesserit schools?"

She nodded.

"Two of those old schools have survived: the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. The Guild, that's at least what we think, concentrates all its efforts on pure mathematics. The Bene Gesserit develops another function."

"Politics," Paul said.

_"Kull wahad!"_ said the old woman, giving Jessica a hard look.

"I haven't told him anything, His Reverence," Paul's mother confessed.

The Reverend Mother turned her attention to Paul.

"You have needed few clues to deduce this," she replied. "It's about politics. The original Bene Gesserit school was run by those who sensed that continuity in human relationships was needed. They saw that this continuity could not exist without separating from the human lineage from the animal lineage ... for reasons of selection."

The old woman's words abruptly lost that special clarity for Paul. He perceived an offense towards what his mother called instinct for sincerity. It wasn't that the Reverend Mother lied to her. Obviously, she believed in what he was saying. It was something deeper, something linked to that terrible purpose.

"But my mother tells me that many Bene Gesserit of schools ignore her genealogy"

"Genetic ancestry is all in our archives," the Reverend Mother told him. "Your mother knows she is of Bene Gesserit descent, or that she was accepted as such"

"So why have you never known who your own parents were?"

"Some know ... others do not. It may happen, for example, that we want him to procreate with a consanguineous in order to make some genetic characteristic dominant. We have a multitude of reasons"

Paul perceived the offense towards his instinct for sincerity, and said:

"You decide many things for yourself"

The Reverend Mother looked at him in silence, thinking:_ 'Is there a criticism in your voice?'_

"Our burden is heavy," he said.

Paul realized that he was recovering more and more from the shock of the test. He looked at her calmly and said:

"You say that maybe I am the ... Kwisatz Haderach. What is this, a human gom jabbar?"

"Paul!" his mother scolded him. "You shouldn't use that tone with ..."

"Don't get into this, Jessica," the old woman scolded her. "Boy, do you know the Truesayer drug?

"You take it to increase your ability to detect falsehoods," he said. "My mother explained it to me"

"Have you ever attended a real trance?

He shook his head, and the Reverend Mother related:

"The drug is dangerous, but it gives you intuition. When a Truesayer has the gift of the drug, she can look in many places in her memory ... from her body's memory. We can look to many avenues of the past ... but only to the feminine avenues" His voice had a hint of sadness. "However, there is a place where no Truesayer can look. We are repelled, terrified. But it is said that one day a man will come who, with the gift of drugs, can see with his inner eye. You can see where neither of us can ... in the past two, male and female"

"Your Kwisatz Haderach?"

"Yes, the one who can be in many places at once: the Kwisatz Haderach. Many men have tried the drug ... many of them, and none have succeeded"

"Have they all tried and failed?"

"Oh no" she shook her head. "They have tried and died."

* * *

"Well, Jessica, what do you have to tell me for yourself?" the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam asked in a serious tone.

He had arrived in Caladan, the twilight of the day he had suffered his test. The two women were alone in Jessica's rooms while Paul waited in the Meditation Room, next door.

Jessica stood before the windows that opened in the south. I watched without seeing the colored evening clouds, beyond the meadow and the river. I heard the question of the Reverend Mother.

She had also suffered the test ... so many years ago. A thin young girl with bronze hair, her body tortured by the winds of puberty, had entered the study of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Superior Censor of the Bene Gesserit School in Wallach IX. Jessica looked at her right hand, flexed her fingers, remembering the pain, the terror, the rage.

"Poor Paul," she whispered regretfully.

"I've asked you a question, Jessica!" The old woman's voice was sharp, imperative.

"What? Oh ..." Jessica drew from the past and faced the Reverend Mother, who was sitting with her back against the stone wall, between the two windows facing east. "What should I tell you?"

"What should you tell me? What should you tell me?" the old woman snapped in a tone of cruel mockery.

"Yes, I had a son!" Jessica burst. He held the look of those cold eyes.

"You had been ordered that you had to procreate a daughter for the Atreides"

"It meant so much to him" she justified herself.

"And, in your pride, you thought you could father Kwisatz Haderach!"

Jessica stood up.

"I considered the possibility"

"You thought of the Duke's desire to have a boy," the Reverend Mother restored. "And his wishes have nothing to do with this. A daughter Atreides could have married a Harkonnen heir, and the gap would have been closed. You complicated things unpredictably. Now we run the risk of losing both genetic lines."

"You are not infallible"

"What is done is done," the old woman finally said.

"I have voted that I will never regret my decision"

"Very remarkable of you" scoffed the Reverend Mother. "No regrets. We will see, when you run away with your head set at a price and with all hands raised against your life and that of your son"

Jessica paled.

"No alternative?"

"Alternative? How can you ask this a Bene Gesserit?"

"I just want to know what you saw with your higher powers"

"I see in the future the same thing I have seen in the past. You know our affairs well, Jessica. The race knows that it is mortal, and fears the stagnation of its inheritance. It is the blood flow ... the urgency of mixing the genetic characteristics without planning. The Empire, the CHOAM Company, all the Great Houses, are just the wrecks dragged by this flow "

"CHOAM" Jessica murmured. "I guess he has already decided how he will distribute the spoils of Arrakis"

"What is CHOAM but a weather vane moving to the breath of our time?" said the Reverend Mother. "Emperor Padishah and his friends currently control fifty-nine point seventy-five percent of the votes of the CHOAM board. Surely they have seen how helpful this is, and how others will also see the same, the power of their votes. it will be increased. That's how the story is done, girl"

"That's exactly what I need now," said Jesicca. "A review of history"

"Don't be sarcastic, girl! You know as well as I what are the forces that surround us. Our civilization rests on three points: the Imperial House, in balance with the Great Noble Houses of the Landsraad, and among them, the Guild and its damn monopoly of interstellar transport. In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures. And it would be bad without the complications of a feudal commercial culture that turns its back on any science"

"Remains dragged by the flow ..." Jessica repeated bitterly. "And the remains, here, are Duke Leto, and also my son, and they are also ..."

"Oh, shut up, girl. When you entered this game, you knew very well what the hornet was that you were going to find in it."

"I am a Bene Gesserit," Jessica quoted. "I exist only to serve"

"Exactly," said Gaius Helen Mohiam. "And all we can expect is to prevent all this from causing a general conflagration, in order to preserve everything we can from the most important genetic lines."

Jessica closed her eyes, feeling the sting of her tears about to sprout. He fought the internal tremor that shook her, the external tremor, the panting breath, the disorderly beat of the pulse, the sweat of his palms. Then he said:

"I will pay for my mistakes"

"And your son will pay with you"

"I will protect you as much as I can"

"Protect him!" the older woman snapped. "You know how weak he is! If you protect him too much, Jessica, he will never be strong enough to reach a destination, any destination."

Jessica turned and looked across the window at the increasingly dense shadow.

"Is that planet really that terrible, Arrakis?"

"Pretty bad, but not totally bad. The Protective Missionaria passed by and made it a little better." The Reverend Mother rose, isolating the fold of her dress. "Tell the boy to come. I must leave soon."

"You must?"

The woman's voice softened.

"Jessica, girl, I would like to be in your place and assume your sufferings. But each one of us must follow her own path"

"I know," she said solemnly.

"You are as dear to me as any of my other daughters, but I cannot allow this to interfere with duty."

"I understand ... the need"

"Everything you have done, Jessica, and why you have done them ... we both understand it. But sincerity forces me to tell you that there is little hope that your son is totally Bene Gesserit. Don't expect too much."

Jessica shook away the tears that had formed at the angle of her eyes. It was a gesture of rage, and he said:

"You make me feel like a little girl again reciting my first lesson" She forced the words to come up: "_'Humans should never submit to animals'_" An abrupt sob shook her. He said, in a murmur: "I've been so alone"

"This is part of the test," said the old woman. "Humans are almost always alone. Now, he calls the boy. It has been a long and terrible day for him. But he has had enough time to reflect and remember, and I must ask him some other questions about his dreams."

Jessica nodded, headed for the Meditation Hall and opened the door.

"Paul, come in, please."

Paul obeyed with reluctant slowness. He looked at his mother as if she were a stranger. His eyes were circumspect on the Reverend Mother, but this time he only bowed his head slightly, as if addressing an equal. He heard his mother close the door behind him.

"Young" said the old woman, "let's go back to the matter of your dreams"

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Do you dream every night? What did you dream last time when I arrived?"

Paul hesitated.

"Yes" He closed his eyes. "I often dreamed that I was in a cave ... but everything seemed to distort as the raindrops descended and caused great currents"

The Reverend Mother looked at him strangely, as did Jessica.

"How is your dream distorted?"

"I also asked myself the same question. But, as everything became clearer, I could see that the currents of some kind of puddle of water showed me the figure of a person, a teenager"

The two women looked at each other, confused and questioning.

"Paul" his mother called him, "can you describe us as he was"

"The dream was blurry to me, although I catalog it as a few years older than me, perhaps between seventeen or eighteen. It is of thin complexion, with curly black hair and dark gray eyes. The strangest thing was that it was accompanied by a cat domestic black with white wearing a yellow collar around his neck"

Both women were stunned.

"Boy" spoke the Reverend Mother. "Somehow you must know him, at least his name"

"I don't know him," Paul said, "but his presence is different, his aura radiates a kind of strange feeling, just like his pet. Both were different, surrounded by blue outlines in the form of flares. The vision turns to me. Blurred sometimes, he even managed to distinguish that the teenager's attire changes to a kind of black coat to the ankle, a high-necked vest with golden details, black pants, brown and black wink pickers, a pair of red gloves, and a mask black and white domino face that only covered his for the cat, there was only a silhouette of the stature of a child with an immense head with feline ears and short 's all I can remember from that strange vision"

The Reverend Mother remained thoughtful, processing the strange dream the boy had had. Does it mean that you saw a kind of change in the continuum of the present? Perhaps it could be possible, since being under the influence of a spice allows the individual to gain the ability to open the inner eye and observe the space-time tissue veil. What Paul has seen in his dream could be treated as an alteration, an anomaly.

_'When I return to my job, I will give it an important priority to investigate the boy's dream, in addition to looking for the described teenager and his pet; it may be possible that they are a threat to order, or those who play an important role,'_ she thought_. 'I will need more information you have seen'_

"Tell me more if you have had any abnormality in your dreams in addition to the strange anomaly of the curly dark-haired teenager and her domestic cat" asked the Reverend Mother.

Paul closed his eyes again, memorizing the images in his mind.

"The fragments make me go back to the cave, where a girl is with me. She was thin, with totally blue eyes, no white. I told her about you, I told her that I had seen the Reverend Mother in Caladan" He opened his eyes at the end.

"And what you told that strange girl was what happened today?"

Paul reflected for a moment, and then said:

"Yes. I told the girl that you had come and that you marked me with a seal that made me strange"

"A seal that made you strange," the woman murmured, and threw another glance at Jessica before returning her attention to Paul. "Now, tell me the truth, Paul: do you often have those dreams where there was no interference from the recent anomaly. The boy and his pet must have been recent, but what makes me curious is the girl. Have you have you ever dreamed of her?"

"I had dreamed it before"

"Oh? Do you know her?"

"I will meet her"

"Tell me about her" deepened the Reverend Mother.

Paul closed his eyes again.

"We are in a small place between rocks, under cover. It is almost night, but it is hot and I can see sand spots outside, through the rocks. We are ... waiting for something ... I must meet someone. And she She is terrified but tries to hide it, and I am excited. And she tells me:_ 'Tell me about the waters of your homeworld, Usul.'_ " Paul opened his eyes. "Isn't it strange? My homeworld is Caladan. I've never heard of a planet called Usul."

"Is there anything else in that dream?" Jessica interrupted.

"Yes. But I think maybe she will call me Usul," said Paul. "It just occurred to me now." He closed his eyes again. "She asks me to talk to him about the waters. And I take his hand. And I tell him I'm going to recite a poem to him. And I recite the poem to him, but I have to explain some of the words, like beach and surf and seaweed and seagulls"

"Which poem?" asked the Reverend Mother.

Paul opened his eyes.

"One of Gurney Halleck's sung poems for sad times"

Behind Paul, Jessica began to recite:

_"I remember the salt smoke from a fire on the beach_

_And the shadows under the pines ..._

_Solid, defined ... concrete ..._

_The seagulls perched on the promontory,_

_White on green ..._

_And the wind running through the pines_

_Waving the shadows;_

_The seagulls spreading wings,_

_Flying_

_And filling the sky with their screams._

_And I hear the wind_

_Blowing along the beach,_

_And the hangover,_

_And I see how our bonfire_

_He has burned the seaweed." _

"This is it," said Paul.

The old woman looked at Paul and said:

"Young, as Censor of the Bene Gesserit, I am looking for the Kwisatz Haderach, the male who can really become one of us. Your mother sees this possibility in you, but sees her with the eyes of a mother. I also see this possibility, but nothing more. As for the anomaly you had, that will be a matter of study"

She was silent, and Paul understood that he was looking forward to him speaking. I hope.

"Well, whatever you want," she said after a moment. "There are deep chasms in you; I admit this"

"Can I go now?" he asked.

"Don't you want to hear what the Reverend Mother can tell you about the Kwisatz Haderach?" Jessica asked.

"He said that everyone who had tried had died."

"But I can give you some clues about his failures," said the Reverend Mother.

Talk about clues, Paul thought. But he really doesn't know anything. And said:

"Give them to me."

"And go to hell?" She smiled, and wrinkles crisscrossed her face. "Very well: _'Who submits, dominates.'_"

He was stunned; Was I talking about something as elementary as the tension within intentionality? Did he think his mother hadn't taught him anything?

"Is this a clue?" I ask.

"We are not here to play with words or discuss their meaning," said the old woman. "The willow is subjected to the wind and thrives until the day when there will be around so many willows that will form a barrier against the wind. This is the purpose of the willow."

Paul looked at her. She had said purpose, and felt the word hit him, infecting him again with that terrible purpose. He experienced a sudden rage against her: fatua old witch with her mouth full of topics.

"You think I can be that Kwisatz Haderach," he said. "You have spoken of me, but you have said absolutely nothing about what we can do to help my father. I have heard you speak to my mother. You speak as if my father was already dead. Well, it is not so!"

"If it were possible to do something for him, we would have done it," the old woman growled. "Perhaps we can save you. It is doubtful, but possible. As for your father, no. When you have managed to accept this fact, you will have learned a true Bene Gesserit lesson"

Paul realized how the words had hurt his mother. He looked irritated at the old woman. How could he say that about his father? How could I be so sure? His mind burned with resentment.

The Reverend Mother looked at Jessica.

"You have trained it well in the manner ... I have observed the signs. I would have done the same in your place, and to hell the Rules"

Jessica nodded.

"Now I want to warn you," said the old woman. "Do not forget the regular order of your training. Your own safety requires the Voice. You already have some idea of it, but we both know you need much more ... and desperately." She approached Paul, staring at him. "Goodbye, young human. I hope you succeed. But, whatever happens ... well, we will arrive equally"

She looked back at Jessica. An imperceptible sign of understanding passed between the two. Then the old woman left the room with a soft touch of her clothes, without looking back. The room and its occupants had been excluded from their thoughts.

But Jessica had been able to surprise for a moment the face of the Reverend Mother the moment she turned. There were tears on those wrinkled cheeks. Tears more uneasy than any other word or sign that had been exchanged between them that day.

* * *

**Planet Giedi Prime, headquarters of the House Harkonnen.**

It was the sphere of a world, partially in the shadows, spinning under the impulse of a thick hand full of bright rings. The sphere was attached to an articulated support fixed to a wall of a room without windows, whose other walls presented a multicolored mosaic of scrolls, bookfilms, ribbons and coils. The light, coming from golden balloons suspended in their mobile fields, dimly illuminated the room.

An ellipsoid desk clad in petrified pink jade elacca wood was in the center of the room. Some suspension chairs, monoform, were around him. Two were busy. In one of them sat a young with black hair, about sixteen, with a round face and sad eyes. The other was a small, thin man with an effeminate face.

Both the young and the man contemplated the spinning sphere, and the man who turned it from the gloom.

A choked laugh arose next to the sphere.

He gave way to a low and rumbling voice:

"Here it is, Piter. The biggest trap for men in all of history. And the Duke is quick to place himself willingly among his jaws. Isn't that a magnificent plan prepared by me, Baron?"

"Of course, Baron," said the man. His voice was tenor, with a soft and musical quality.

The thick hand lowered the sphere and stopped its rotation. Now, all eyes in the room could contemplate the motionless surface and see that it was a sphere made for the richest collectors or planetary governors of the Empire. Everything about him suggested the hallmark of the Imperial artisans. The longitude and latitude lines were marked with the finest platinum thread.

The polar caps were wonderful diamonds embedded. The thick hand moved, tracing the surface details.

"I invite you to watch" the bass voice rumbled. "Look closely, Piter, and you too, Feyd-Rautha, my dear: from the sixty degrees north to the sixty degrees south, those exquisite folds. Those colors: don't you remember a sweet candy? And nowhere will you see the blue of lakes or rivers or seas. And those lovely polar caps ... so small. Can anyone be wrong to identify it? Arrakis! Really unique. A superb setting for a unique victory."

A smile distended Piter's lips.

"And to think, Baron, that Emperor Padishah thinks he has offered the Duke your spice planet. How funny."

"This is an absurd observation," the Baron growled. "You say it to confuse young Feyd-Rautha, but it is not necessary to confuse my nephew"

The sad-looking young man stirred in his chair, smoothing a wrinkle from his black stockings. Then he straightened, hearing a discreet knock at the door behind him.

Piter tore himself out of his chair, went to the door, and opened it just enough to take the cylinder of messages from him. He closed it again, unrolled the cylinder and read it. He laughed softly to himself. He laughed again.

"And good?" asked the Baron.

"The idiot answers us, Baron!"

"Since when does an Atreides reject the opportunity to show a gesture?" asked the Baron. "Well, what does it say?"

"He is rather rude, Baron. He addresses you as "Harkonnen" ... without the _'Sire et cher Cousin'_, without any title, with nothing."

"It's a good name," the Baron growled, and his voice betrayed his impatience. "And what does my dear Leto say?"

"He says: 'Your offer for a meeting is refused. I have had to face many times with your betrayals, everyone knows it'."

"Y?" asked the Baron.

"He says:_ 'The art of kanly still has its admirers in the bosom of the Empire.'_ And he signs:_ 'Duke Leto of Arrakis'_" Piter laughed. "From Arrakis! Oh, that's good!"

"Shut up, Piter," said the Baron, and the other's laugh was cut off as if someone had operated a switch. "Kanly says?" I ask. "Vendetta, huh? And you've used that old term so rich in

traditions so that I understood well what he meant.

"You have made the gesture of peace," said Piter. "The forms have been observed."

"To be a Mentat, Piter, you talk too much," said the Baron. And he thought:_ 'I'm going to have to get rid of him as soon as I can. It has almost survived its usefulness.'_ He looked at his murderous Mentat, on the other side of the room, observing the detail that people noticed in the first place: the eyes, two blue slits with a more intense blue inside, eyes without the smallest white.

A brief smile crossed Piter's face. It was like the grimace of a mask under those eyes resembling two deep wells.

"But, Baron! Never has a revenge been more beautiful. The plan constitutes the most exquisite betrayal: to make Leto change Caladan for Dune ... without the slightest alternative, since it is an order of the Emperor. What a joke. on your part!"

"You talk too much, Piter," said the Baron in a cold voice.

"But I am happy, my Baron. While you ... you have been touched by envy."

"Piter!"

"Aha, Baron! Isn't it unfortunate that you have been unable to imagine for yourself that delicate plan?"

"Someday I'll make you strangle you, Piter."

"Of course, Baron. Anyway! But a good deed is never lost, huh?"

"Have you chewed verite or semuta, Piter?"

"The truth without fear surprises the Baron," said Piter. His face became the cartoon of a hilarious mask. "Ha ha! But see, Baron, since I am a Mentat, I know the moment you will send me to run. Avoid doing it while I can still be useful. Ordering it prematurely would be a waste, since I am still very profitable. I know something that this lovely planet has taught you, Dune: never squander. Is it true, Baron?"

The Baron continued to look at Piter.

Feyd-Rautha shivered in his chair. _'Those crazy quarrels!'_ thought. _'My uncle can't talk to his Mentat without arguing. Do you think that others have nothing else to do but listen to their disputes?'_

"Feyd," said the Baron. "When I invited you here I told you to listen and learn. Are you learning?"

"Yes, uncle" the voice was prudent and respectful.

"Sometimes I wonder about Piter," said the Baron. "I cause pain to others out of necessity, but he ... I would swear that he enjoys it positively. For my part, I feel pity for poor Duke Leto. Dr. Yueh will act against him very soon, and this will be the end of all the Atreides. But surely Leto will know which hand guides that malleable doctor ... and knowing it will be a terrible thing for him."

"So, why didn't you order the doctor to stick a kindjal between the ribs, calmly and efficiently?" Piter asked. "You speak of mercy, but ..."

"The Duke must know that it is I who has condemned him," said the Baron. "And the other Great Houses should know it too. This will slow them down a bit. So I will have some more field to maneuver. It is obviously necessary, but that does not mean I like it."

"Field to maneuver!" Piter scoffed. "The eyes of the Emperor have already landed on you, Baron. You move too boldly. One day the Emperor will send one or two legions of his Sardaukar to disembark here, in Giedi Prime, and this will be the end of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen."

"You would like to see it, right, Piter?" asked the Baron. "How much you would enjoy watching the Sardaukar formations ravaging my cities and plundering this castle. I am sure you would enjoy greatly."

"Do you need to ask, Baron?" Piter whispered.

"You should have been Bashar of one of his Bodies," said the Baron. "You are so interested in blood and pain. Maybe I rushed too much with my promise of Arrakis' loot."

Piter moved through the room with curiously short steps, stopping directly behind Feyd-Rautha. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and the young man looked up at Piter with an eyebrow.

"Don't play with Piter, Baron," said Piter. "You promised Lady Jessica. You promised me."

"Why, Piter?" asked Baron Harkonnen. "For pain?"

Piter looked at him, sinking into silence.

Feyd-Rautha moved her suspension chair to the side.

"Uncle, do I have to stay? You said that ..."

"My dear Feyd-Rautha is impatient," said the Baron. He moved through the shadows behind the sphere. "Patience, Feyd" and turned his attention to the Mentat. "And the Duke, dear Piter, the boy Paul?"

"The trap will bring you directly to our hands, Baron," Piter murmured.

"This is not my question," said the Baron. "I remind you that you predicted that witch Bene Gesserit would give the Duke a daughter. You were wrong, huh, Mentat?"

"I don't often make mistakes, Baron," Piter replied, and for the first time there was fear in his voice. "Accept this: I'm not mistaken often. And you know well that those Bene Gesserit generally father daughters. Even the Emperor's consort only has produced females"

"Uncle," said Feyd-Rautha, "you said there would be something important for me here and ..."

"Hear my nephew" asked Baron Harkonnen. "He aspires to control my barony and doesn't even know how to control himself" he moved behind the sphere, a shadow in the shadows. "Well, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, I have he came here in the hope of being able to teach you some wisdom. Have you observed our good Mentat? You should have extracted something from our conversation."

"But, uncle ..."

"A very efficient Mentat, that Piter, don't you think, Feyd?"

"Yes, but ..."

"Ah! There it is: but ...! It consumes too much spice, eats it as if they were chocolates. Look at its eyes! It would be said that it has just arrived directly from an Arrakean excavation. Efficient, that Piter, but also emotional and inclined to passionate crises. Efficient, that Piter, but also capable of making mistakes."

"Have you called me here to deteriorate my efficiency with your criticisms, Baron?" Piter said, in a low and low voice.

"Determine your efficiency? You know me well, Piter. I just wanted my nephew to realize the limitations of a Mentat."

"Are you already training my substitute?" asked Piter.

"Replace you? Come on, Piter, where would I find another Mentat with your cunning and poison?"

"In the same place where you found me, Baron."

"He may have to do it," the Baron mused. "You've seemed a bit unstable lately. And the spice you eat!"

"Maybe my pleasures are too expensive, Baron? Do you object to that?"

"My dear Piter, your pleasures are what bind you to me. How could I object to it? I only wish my nephew to observe some of your characteristics. But let's leave stupidities aside," Baron Harkonnen argued. "The only thing that matters that the Atreides will be staying in the city of Arrakeen and not in Carthag. Isn't that right, Piter?"

"Of course, Baron," said his crazy Mentat. "As I have indicated through my mathematical calculations, Duke Leto and his family would choose the city of Arrakeen as a safe place, because the name of the city makes a fun and cultural rhyme. They will occupy it, knowing that it was previously the home of Count Fenring and his wife "

"The Ambassador of the Smugglers" added Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

"Ambassador ... what?" Feyd-Rautha expressed confused.

"Your uncle has made a joke," Piter of Vries explained. "Call Count Fanring for that nickname indicating Emperor Padishah's interest in smuggling operations in Arrakis"

The nephew looked at his uncle in bewilderment.

"Why?" He wanted to know.

"Don't be stupid, Feyd," his uncle bellowed angrily. "As long as the Guild remains in fact out of imperial control, how could it be otherwise? How would the murderers and spies move?"

Feyd's mouth pronounced an intarticulate "Oh-h-hh"

"We have arranged some diversions in the residence" continued Piter. "There will be an attempt on the life of the Duke's heir ... an attack that may be successful"

"Piter!" the Baron roared. "I indicated ..."

"I said that accidents can occur" he replied calmly. "And this assassination attempt must seem authentic."

"Fine, but the boy has such a young and tender body," said the Baron. "Of course, he is potentially more dangerous than his father ... with that witch of his mother to train him. Damn woman! Well, go on, Piter, please."

"Thufir Hawat will guess that we have an agent infiltrated between them," he said. "The most obvious suspect is Dr. Yueh, who is really our agent. But Thufir has investigated him and has known that our doctor has graduated from the Suk School with Imperial Conditioning ... which makes him supposedly safe to cure even Emperor Padishah himself, he has a lot of confidence in the Imperial Conditioning, it is assumed that this conditioning is definitive and cannot be removed without killing the subject, however, as someone already observed in his time, with a suitable lever can move even a planet. We found the lever that could move the doctor"

"How?" Feyd-Rautha asked, fascinated with the subject. "Everyone knew it was impossible to upset the Imperial Conditioning!"

"Another time," said his uncle. "Keep going"

"Instead of Yueh," said Piter, "we are going to place another more interesting suspect in Thufir Hawat's path. The suspect's own audacity will be what most calls her attention to her."

"She?" asked Feyd-Rautha interrogatively.

"Lady Jessica herself" her uncle clarified.

"Isn't it sublime?" Piter said with emotion. "Thufir Hawat's mind will be so disturbed with this probability that his functions as Mentat will be diminished. He could even try to kill her." He frowned. "But I don't think I will do it"

"And you don't want me to do it, huh?" asked Baron Harkonnen.

"Don't distract me," the crazy Mentat replied. "While Hawat will be busy with Lady Jessica, we will distract his attention with rebellions in some garrison cities and things like that. All of this will be stifled. The Duke will believe he dominates the situation. Then, when the time is right, we will sign Yueh and we will move forward with the bulk of our forces ..."

"Go ahead, tell him everything"

"We will attack them supported by five legions of Sardaukars disguised with Harkonnen clothes"

"Sardaukars!" exclaimed Feyd-Rautha in a low voice. His mind evoked the terrible imperial troops, the ruthless murderers, the fanatical soldiers of Emperor Padishah.

"See how much I trust you, Feyd," said the Baron. "None of this should transcend any other Great House, since otherwise the Landsraad could unite against the Imperial House, and it would be chaos."

"The most important point," Piter of Vries spoke, "is this: from the moment the House Harkonnen is going to be used to do the dirty work of Emperor Padishah, he will benefit from a certain advantage. A dangerous, sure advantage, but that if used wisely it can make the House Harkonnen immensely richer than any other House of the Empire "

"You have no idea how much wealth you are working here, Feyd," said Baron Harkonnen. "Not even in your most crazy dreams. First, we will irrevocably ensure a CHOAM Company directory."

Feyd-Rautha nodded. Wealth was the only important thing. The CHOAM was the key to wealth, each Noble House sank their hands in the chests of the company whenever they could and under the control of the board. That CHOAM directory was the real evidence of political power in the Empire, changing according to the votes of the unstable forces of the Landsraad, which served as a balance against Emperor Padishah and his supporters.

"Duke Leto" pointed out Piter "can seek refuge among the few Fremen who live on the edge of the desert. Or perhaps he prefers to send his family to that imaginary security. But this road is blocked by one of His Majesty's agents ... the planetary ecologist. You will surely remember ... Kynes"

"We know him," the Baron said irritably. "Continue damn it"

"You don't like details very much, Baron"

"Go on, I order you!"

Piter shrugged.

"If everything goes as planned, the House of Harkonnen will have a sub-feud in Arrakis within a standard year. Your uncle will get the administration of that fief. His personal agent will dominate Arrakis."

"More benefits," Feyd-Rautha argued.

"Exactly," the Baron replied. And he thought: _'It's fair. We were the ones who colonized Arrakis ... except those few Fremen mestizos who hide at the edge of the desert ... and a few and harmless smugglers linked more closely to the planet than the indigenous workers themselves'_

"And the Great Houses will know then that Baron Vladimir Harkonnen has destroyed the Atreides," said Piter. "Everyone will know. And the most charming thing of all month that the Duke will also know. He already knows it now. He already senses the trap."

"We will recover Arrakis!" the Baron exclaimed with pride and superiority. "Whoever controls the spice controls the universe! The Duke will die before these eyes! And he will know that it was I, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the responsible for his downfall!"

The Baron moved away from the sphere of Arrakis. And, emerging from the shadows, its silhouette acquired another dimension ... large and immensely thick. And the subtle movements of her bumps under the folds of her dark clothes revealed that her fats were partially supported by portable hangers anchored to her flesh. Their weight should really be about two hundred kilos standard, but their feet did not support more than fifty of them.

"I'm hungry," the Baron growled, and rubbed his thick lips with his ring-covered hand, looking at Feyd-Rautha with eyes buried in fat. "Ask them to bring us food, dear"

* * *

**See you in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here I bring you the continuation of this story. ****Here we will see the introduction of the characters that make up Dune's first book, and then Ren will be incorporated into the story.**

**I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

"So ... this is the alternate line where Igor teleported us, right?" Morgana reflected, sticking her head into the leather bag, looking with a fine and sharp look at the new environment where she was. "Everything seems the same as the documentaries that appear on television where they talk about the Arab world and its constructions. Did all of humanity in this timeline decide to live that kind of life as a tribute?"

"... Based on our presence in this place, yes," said Ren, who was walking down a street full of people who went from one place to another, wearing Arab-type garments, such as tunics of different colors, veils. . that covered their heads, scarves on their necks and some clothes like shirts and pants that both men and women wore, contrary to Islamic demands ... not to mention the intense blue eyes that covered the pupils and the corneas, a trait that Igor had told him that it was the product of the narcotic called melange that changed his internal system as a product of adaptation to the deadly desert planet.

The clothing he wore to pass unnoticed among the inhabitants was a white wool shirt with a black shawl and linen pants with tight leather shoes; A beige hijab covered her curly hair and neck, revealing her face and eyes the same shade as the inhabitants thanks to an illusion spell. He had both hands in his pockets and the bag where the cat was inside hung from his left shoulder, walking naturally and calmly down the street without raising suspicions, a habit that he characterized on Earth.

The clothes and bag were a gift Igor had given him to adapt to the new environment to which they would send him after Morgana appeared in the Velvet Room; The door that would take them to the desert planet materialized after a whitish light with blue outlines in front of them, and the two of them had passed through after saying goodbye to the two of them, who would soon see them again; even Lavenza winked lovingly at him when he left.

They had both appeared in a desolate alley of transient activity, which was a good sign that he got out of there and started walking down the street with a normal and relaxed demeanor.

On his walk, Ren was able to distinguish that the entire city was shaped like an urban planning garrison of a few square diameters that encompassed all the arched buildings. The streets connected with other sectors with high movement of citizens; there were shopping malls in very small areas where people bought and exchanged water and some coins or other barter items; The houses and other residential developments were made of detailed stonework in a well-sculpted manner and Yusuke would be fascinated to capture it in his sketchbook like the locals.

Ren looked up at the imposing great wall of rock that surrounded the entire city that protected them from sandstorms and worms. The intense sunlight formed paths on the mountain peaks above the city, as well as extensive shadows on the flat, earthy surface that refreshed the ground. In the sky-blue sky with high orange contours, you could see in the distance the two moons that were suspended thousands of kilometers away in the ice cream of outer space.

It was hot, I could not doubt that in any desert area where the high degrees of temperature served to melt an ice cube, as in the Futaba Palace that represented the vast dunes of Egypt; But at least his clothes kept him hydrated inside, like the locals in tight leather suits and clothes like dry cloths, a tactic to survive in a deadly world where water and rain were scarce ... Although food was not when he visited. the markets where there were meats, cereals, grains, vegetables and fruits of all kinds that were seen on Earth and that still existed in the future.

Ren walked around, observing, scrutinizing, trying to familiarize himself with the surroundings in the routes and alleys that could serve him in case of hiding from his pursuers; there were residential areas where he could stay as globetrotters; he had his cell phone, and with it the application of the Metaverse Navigator in which Igor gave him at the given moment to use it when it is time to reform a corrupt individual in the new world he was in ... how eager he was to see the counterpart cognitive of the city, and would also serve to pay the rent for a room.

Language was the least of it; Alilat, his Persona from the Empress Arcana of Makoto, helped him configure his Japanese language to match the language spoken by the locals which was Arabic, but a bit more futuristic.

His Persona kept being happy at the nostalgia of seeing his ancient followers hearing that they still praised the rocks in a divine way, remembering that this was the abstract manifestation of the ancient goddess that the Sumerians worshiped the rocks in a divine way that later It was brought to Arabia by merchants and by nomads in its settlement in the past, until its worship and worship was eliminated by the arrival of the prophet Muhammad who spread the message of Islam to all of Arabia, ending all idols. pagans.

"... There is our objective" Ren indicated with a gesture as he stood in a corner, resting from the reconnaissance walk.

Morgana sharpened her feline eyes, fixing on a palace that was three kilometers away with high watchtowers and high walls that enclosed it as a measure of protection.

"The residential home of Duke Atreides and his family," deduced the cat. "I must say that the palace is something very realistic for someone who is related to the monarch who rules this entire empire, can you believe it, huh? What a coincidence"

"... Everything happens at the right time" Ren said jokingly, "but our priority is to protect his heir"

"The one who was created to be some kind of perfect human?"

"... Something like that" he shrugged.

"Hmmm, I see" the cat returned his gaze to the palace. "How are we going to get in? There is security in the towers and on the sides of the wall; they would catch us if they discover if they have invisible cameras or some futuristic gadget"

"... It's an excellent guess." Ren nodded. He observed the palace for a few seconds, analyzing, devising a way to enter it, although he had to have discretion and a serious sweep of the area to enter, a fact learned when entering a cognitive Palace and knowing where the Treasure is located. and the Shadowed Being that guarded it.

He was on another timeline, in a galaxy where humanity was established in a feudal system where conspiracies and murders go hand in hand, and that was why he must be cautious in using his experiences on Earth to confront one another. different situation, and it was when asked to alter a predetermined scenario. Fate could be altered by making decisions in which he could alter the facts, and Ren Amamiya himself had been that person by being chosen as a rebellious spirit who did not bow to any law.

He and the Phantom Thieves were those who did not oppose the jurisdiction of the arbitrary order, and the clear example in each one who could choose his own path, was the elimination of the figure that represented the authority regime, and that's where Yaldabaoth came in being the distorted manifestation of human desires in living under the yoke of an authoritarian submission to the actions exercised by a society in decline and corroded by the corruption of the people and their rulers.

With a single shot from a rebellious angel it was enough to destroy that system, making believe that everyone deserved to have a second chance in their lives without any totalitarian regime or a representative deity of the law.

Now it was time to change the course of a young man's destiny with a huge burden on his shoulders.

Ren was deep in thought, searching for various options on how he would enter the Duke Atreides' palace. Maybe he could pass himself off as a servant, although I would ask him several questions about where he came from the city or from the moors outside ... very risky. Then there was the next option when listening to the news of a kind of quarterback who would measure the development of the confrontation ... that would not be bad.

"... I know" he said at last with a smile drawn at his corners.

"Seriously?" Morgana replied, cocking her head and frowning. "How?"

"... It is a complicated plan, but it will work" Ren began to give directions to Morgana which is what he would have to do.

* * *

Paul was mired in his studies to distract himself from the events that had occurred in the morning. He picked up some bookfilms, papers and maps scattered on an L-shaped table in the exercise room. Knowing that he played the practices that with his tutors, he decided to take advantage of the minutes he had left to distract himself for a while in nurturing his mind of knowledge, trying to make aside the comment that the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam had said about the life of His father was about to end forever.

He didn't want to believe it ... he didn't want it to be true ... he didn't want to think that both women talked about as if their father had just died recently, even when the Reverend Mother took it naturally, seeing everything that happened had an end to a greater good, and that bothered him.

He felt the throbbing pain in his hand that made him shiver, but to suppress that pain, knowing perfectly well that it was not real, but a psychological test how human his senses were when he experienced a lethal suffering that let him know if it was the Kwisatz Haderach, the super-being that the Sisterhood Bene Gesserit was looking for through her genetic breeding project.

Was it really the Kwisatz Haderach? Was that why the old witch came to Castel Caladan? Perhaps it could be true, or perhaps because, according to their studies, the Bene Gesserit have the ability to alter their bodies by eating spices to develop their mystical abilities, and one of them is to genetically change the sex of the embryo in the uterus, and possibly, these changes could change the baby genetically, ending the coming of the Reverend Mother and Truesayer of Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV, Gaius Helen Mohiam, with high expectation that he was the superior human being given birth by His mother, a Bene Gesserit concubine.

The chances of him being the Kwisatz Haderach could be exact by taking into account the strange dreams he had when he dreamed; the girl and the adolescent with her domestic cat generated intrigues with regard to whether there was a possibility that they could exist and find them by chance when they arrived at Arrakis.

In the event that everything goes wrong in Arrakis, the Reverend Mother would send a group to her rescue, not her family, but to him, the possible superhuman who is an essential part of Sisterhood as a puppet to ensure the preservation of the species human in the galaxy.

His thoughts were turned aside when he heard how the door had just opened and closed at once smoothly.

He did not turn to look at who had entered, but remained where he was sitting quietly with his eyes fixed on the information he was reading. His lips curved in a smile that he couldn't bear to suppress because of the childish humor of knowing who he was.

"I know. I'm sitting with my back to the door."

"That noise can be imitated," the owner of the voice spoke reproachfully as a scolding.

Paul turned his head, and met the eyes of his three instructors, and close friends.

The first was a gray-haired old man with brown eyes, wrinkles that were noticeable by age and lips stained red by sapho juice, a liquid extracted from the roots of the plants of the planet of Ecaz that amplifies the observational ability of Mentats He wore a light green uniform buttoned with shoulder pads, leather boots and the Atreides red eagle print on the sleeve.

The second was a man of straight stature with a square block of head and black hair, with long hair and trapped in a silver ring of the Suk School of Internal Medicine. He had a sallow complexion, cheeks angled up, almond-shaped eyes like dark sequins and a drooping mustache that hung like a curved frame around his purple lips and narrow chin. His forehead was tattooed with the black diamond of Imperial Conditioning. He wore black clothes with silver stripes on his neck, covered by a light green raincoat with gray shoulder pads.

The third was a robust man with muscular spleens and long finger hands with large thumbs. His head was square as was his jaw; He had faint blond hair that crawled on sterile spots on his forehead. His face was lumpy with flat features, detailed with a round nose, a lumpy chin and blue eyes with glass splinters. He wore the same uniform as the first man: light green buttoned with men and the red eagle on his sleeve. He carried with him a nine-string basilet with his multipic placed between the ropes and an armful of arms.

He smiled with amused countenance knowing that Gurney Halleck, Thufir Hawat and Wellington Yueh were the only people who visited him in the exercise room just at the right time to mentally calculate the schedules with which they visited. He knew that the three were going to visit him with the passing of a single step, but he distinguished it by simply sharpening his ear and being carried away by his instincts.

"I would distinguish him," Paul said, holding his smile.

_'Yes, maybe I would distinguish it. He is capable of it'_ thought the Mentat Thufir Hawat with analytical deduction._ 'That witch of his mother has certainly trained him well. I wonder what your precious school should think of that. Maybe that's why they sent me to the old Censor here ... to get back on the right track to our dear Lady Jessica'_

"My father tests me again," Paul said, rising from his chair and glancing at Gurney with his musical instrument. "Are you coming to prepare for music when it's time to fight?"

"So today it's time to disrespect your elders, ehh?" Gurney replied in his usual sarcastic tone. Among all his father's men. Gurney was the one he liked best: he knew his mood swings, his weaknesses, his character. He was a friend to him more than a mercenary sword.

Gurney placed the basilet in a corner.

"Then there will be music to play after you finish your training," he said, placing the weapons on a table, aligning them in order: there were swords, daggers, kindjals, slow-loading stunners, and belts-shields.

"Wasn't Duncan supposed to teach me the use of weapons? Where is he?" Paul asked curiously.

"Duncan has gone at the head of the second wave towards Arrakis," Thufir explained. "It will be my turn to leave as well, but I decided to pay you a visit before I go where Gurney will act as a substitute," he scrutinized, looking at the documents. "I see you used your time to inform yourself about the planet"

"I was studying the storms of Arrakis," the boy replied.

"Sandstorms," said the Mentat thoughtfully. "I see"

"They seem rather bad," Paul admitted.

"It's a very cautious word: bad," Thufir spoke wisely. "These storms are unleashed along six or seven thousand kilometers of flat land, and feed on everything that can give them greater thrust: the coriolis force, other storms, anything that has a gram of energy in it. They blow at seven hundred kilometers an hour, sweeping away anything mobile they find in their path: sand, dust, anything. They tear the flesh of your bones and reduce them to splinters"

"Arrakis poses spatial problems" Gurney Halleck replied that he had put on the shield belt and his kindjal at hand, placing himself in the center of the training room. "The costs are very high, huge maintenance and everything else. The Guild demands a prohibitive price for a control satellite, and the House Atreides is not among the richest, boy. You know that well."

"Yes, I understand," Paul intoned with affirmation. He picked up his weapon and the shield belt as he stood a few steps away from Gurney, taking an attack position.

"¡Hey, Thufir!" Gurney Halleck called in an energetic voice, "do you plan on staying watching Paul face me?"

"I would gladly do it," said the Mentat with a smile on his lips stained red, "but I must be punctual with my work: Duke Leto demands that everything be in place when I arrive in the city of Arrakeen for inspection. Try not to get carried away by emotion, Gurney, since we need you intact and healthy"

"But at least we have Yueh with us," said the troubadour warrior with his usual sarcasm.

"I will make sure that Paul does not suffer any contunity in training," Wellington Yueh told him with a smile. "Don't worry, I know very well what I have to do"

"I leave it to you" And with that, Thufir left the room towards the door and disappeared as he closed it.

"Very well, boy," Gurney said, flexing his muscles as he took his position, "show me what you can do."

The shields were activated, wrapping both opponents in a bright orange field with three-dimensional stripes.

Gurney attacked first by making a feint to one side, then another forward, and launched a furious attack. The shields crackled loudly in a distorted tone when touching and repelling themselves of the blows inflicted between the two. Paul moved his left hand, causing the dagger attached to his wrist to slide to his palm, and then counterattacked by launching sagacious attacks that stunned the protective field that enveloped Gurney.

He lost his balance when Gurney gave him a header that made him fall on the ceramic floor. He got up, energetic, with the adrenaline pumping him all over his body at the clamor of the fight. He attacked again, taking Gurney off guard that he could barely block the attacks that were directed at him in an adherent and sinister manner due to the speed exerted by the boy's limbs.

Paul stopped a low blow, cocked. Fint to the side, launched an attack with his weapon and at the same time advanced the dagger to the height of the neck of his instructor, crossing the shield. He stopped the blade two centimeters from the jugular.

"Did you want this?" Paul whispered.

"Well, the dagger goes through the shield slowly, but ..." Gurney nodded. "Look down"

He obeyed, and saw his instructor's kindjal pointing directly at his belly.

"We would kill each other," Gurney said. "But I must admit that you fought a little better when you're under pressure. Now you're really homor" gave him a wolfish smile, making the stigma scar on his chin twitch.

"The way you attacked me," Paul said. "Would you have really shed my blood?"

Gurney pushed the kindjal away and stood up.

"If you had beaten an apex below your capabilities, boy, I would have made a good sign, and you would have always remembered this scar. I don't want my favorite student to succumb to the first tramp Harkonnen who comes to meet him"

Paul deactivated his shield and leaned on the table where the documents were to catch his breath. Dr. Yueh probed his hand where he had carried the kindjal in search of some ailment.

"The situation has become serious," Paul replied uncertainly.

"Soon we will arrive at Arrakis," Gurney seriously reminded him with a stern and sympathetic look. "This is not really a game. Arrakis is real. The Harkonnen are real."

Paul nodded. He marveled at the unusual seriousness of Gurney's attitude, his firm resolve. He looked at the violet stigma scar that adorned his jaw, and remembered the story that the story had told him about what had been Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, nicknamed the Beast, who had been caused in a slave pit in Giede Prime. He understood then that this scar often meant a lot of pain for Gurney ... such intense pain, just as he was afflicted by the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. But he hastened to reject that idea: it froze his whole world.

"Doctor Yueh" Paul decided to change the subject by talking to the doctor with Imperial Conditioning, "do you know anything about Arrakis' worms?"

"I have a bookfilm about a small specimen, only one hundred and ten meters long by twenty-two in diameter. It was recorded at the northern end of the planet. Witnesses worthy of faith have spoken of worms over four hundred meters in length, and this suggests that it is possible that there are even other elders, in the desert, far from Arrakeen, where we will be. The desert and the south pole are forbidden territory"

Paul's gaze turned to a conical projection map of the northern regions of Arrakis that was on the table.

"The desert belt and the southern polar region are classified as uninhabitable. Is it because of the worms?"

"And the storms," Dr. Yueh specified, "which refers to the talk given by Thufir about the fact that they reach seven hundred kilometers per hour. They spray life in minutes. They generate a lot of static electricity in the atmosphere. The shields don't will be enough to operate outdoors in Arrakis"

"How do Fremen survive?" Paul wanted to know.

"We don't know much about them. They live in the desert, some in cities. There are two main groups of people: the Fremen form one of them, and the other is made up of the villages of the graben, the sink and the bread. According to I understand, sometimes they marry each other. Women in the bread and sink villages prefer Fremen husbands; their men prefer Fremen wives. They have a saying: _'education comes from the city, the wisdom of the desert'_"

"Do you have pictures of them?"

"I'll look for some. The most important feature, of course, is his eyes: totally blue, without the white meno in them."

"Ah, the eyes, yes," Paul replied, recalling in his investigation about the strange peculiarity of the eyes that the inhabitants of Arrakis had, including getting to remember the beautiful girl with those same eyes. "The saturation of the melange spice in the blood. The Fremen have to be very brave to live on the edge of the desert"

"Everyone says so," Gurney Halleck intervened in the conversation. "They compose poems to their knives. Women are as wild as men. Even the Fremen boys are violent and dangerous. I don't think you'll be allowed to mix with them when they know you're an outsider."

"True," Paul said, understanding that the Fremen are a conservative people who refuse to share their customs with the people who made up the Empire. The information collected from the imperial documents related that the Fremen descended from the Zensunni refugees during the Butlerian Jihad by escaping from various worlds ravaged by the bloody war between humanity and the machines. Zensunni migrant fleets arrived at Arrakis as the only safe world and their way of life had to evolve to adapt to the deadly desert planet populated by deadly storms and gigantic worms.

In the middle of the imperial era, the Fremen work as workers in the extraction of the melange spice to sustain themselves economically in the agro-industrial area, enjoying a good stability of life to the sustenance of the workforce they did in exchange for the economic payment of the Empire and of merchants from other worlds that sold their products in exchange for spice and water.

Another thing that was to be taken into account, was that the Fremen were to pay attention and be submissive to the mandate of a Great House designated by Emperor Padishah that would govern them as a quasi-fief or feud-serve. The Harkonnen ruled Arrakis with an iron hand for many years by using the fear and persecution of the rebels who opposed his mandate, which led the Fremen population to develop a hatred and resentment towards their oppressors, making them the perfect ally .

"The Fremen may be a closed town," said Dr. Yueh, wearing the fallen mustache, "but it is possible to gain their trust with the benevolence of Duke Leto by being the new ruler of Arrakis. The Fremen despise the Harkonnen, at just like us; a common feeling unites us to a greater cause. Before I leave, I want to give you a gift, something I found when packing my bags" He put an object on the table: black, oblong, no longer than the last phalanx of Paul's thumb.

Yueh noticed that the young heir Atreides did not make the slightest gesture to touch him, and thought: _'He is cautious'_

"An Orange Catholic Bible?" Gurney Halleck said curiously. "I didn't know you had one"

The Orange Catholic Bible was a compilation text of all religious beliefs embodied in a single book, created by the Commission of Ecumenical Translators on a neutral island of the Old Earth to preserve theological knowledge at the end of Butlerian Jihad. In the new sacred book the teachings of Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism and Buddislam traditions had been compiled inside; even its name was changed during its creation to be striking, such as the Zenchristian Scriptures of Koranjiyana, the Accumulated Book, or the Zenvaristian Navakoran, but they decided to name the Orange Catholic Bible as a tribute to the sacred book created by the Hebrews of Israel.

"It's a very old. I was offered it when I was young when I read it as a hobby in my spare time when I was studying medicine at Suk School," Yueh explained. "It is not a bookfilm, but it is printed on thin paper. It has its magnifying device and an electrostatic charging system." He lifted it from the table surface to show it to Paul. "The load keeps it closed, attracting the covers together. Pressing with the finger on the spine ... thus, the pages selected by one repel and the book opens"

"It's very small," observed the young heir.

"But it has eighteen hundred pages. Press with your finger" Yueh showed him how it was. "That is, and the load turns the pages as you read. Never touch the pages with your fingers. The plot of the paper is very delicate." He closed the book and handed it to Paul. "Take it"

Paul held it in his hand, and inspected it in detail.

"It must have been done before the bookfilms"

"It's very old, yes. Your parents might think it's too valuable for a young man like you."

"Your mother will ask for my reasons," the doctor thought solemnly.

"Well ..." Paul closed the book after opening it. "If it's so valuable ..."

"Be forgiving with the whim of an old man" Yueh encouraged. "Open it for Kamila four hundred and sixty-seven where it says: _'Water is the beginning of all life.'_ There is a small mark on the lid that points to the place "

Paul toured the lid, found two marks, one less deep than the other. He pressed the shallowest and the book opened in his palm, with the magnifying device sliding into place.

"Read it," Yueh told him.

Paul moistened his lips and read.

"_Think of the fact that the deaf cannot hear. Is there anyone who can say that he is not deaf? Do we not lack a sense to see and hear the other world around us? Because there is something to around us that we can't ..._ "

"High!" Yueh excited, raising his voice, and causing great surprise between Gurney and Paul.

The doctor closed his eyes, struggling to recover his poise._ 'What perversity has made the book open about Wanna's favorite passage?'_ He opened his eyes, saw that the two were looking at him in bewilderment.

"Sorry," Yueh apologized, embarrassed. "It was my favorite passage ... late wife. It wasn't the one I wanted you to read. Wake up in my memories ... painful"

"I understand that it is not your fault for startling you upon hearing that paragraph, Yueh," Gurney consoled him sympathetically.

"I only chose it because it had two marked marks," Paul told him.

_'Of course,'_ said Yueh mentally. _'Wanna pointed out that passage. His fingers are more sensitive than mine and he has found the mark. It's just an accident, nothing more'_

"You may find this book interesting," Yueh had said, recovering from his sadness. "There is a lot of historical truth, and a lot of ethical philosophy"

Paul looked at the little book in his palm ... nothing so small. However, it contained a mystery ... something had happened while he read it. Something that had awakened a terrible purpose in his mind.

"I think it's time to retire so you can continue training; let them know if you need my help," the doctor announced, and looked at the young heir. "Save the book; it will serve as learning"

Paul touched the cover as he explained. The book closed by itself. He slipped it into a cabinet. For a moment, Yueh let out an exasperated noise from the deal, knowing that the book was very delicate.

"He thanked you for this, Dr. Yueh," Paul intoned formally. "If there is a gift or a favor you want from me, do not hesitate to ask me"

"I ... I don't want anything," Yueh muttered as he left the training room, leaving the apprentice and teacher alone.

"Well," Gurney Halleck spoke, "since we are both alone, it is time that we continue with your training. Now we will work with your speed; show me how you reach it with the left. I will control you from here, where I can better follow the action. And I warn you that today we will try again counterattacks. This is a warning that none of your real enemies will make you"

Paul rose on the tip of his feet to distend his muscles. He adopted a solemn attitude, with the sudden understanding that his life was sliding towards rapid changes. He advanced to the doll and pressed the tip of the kindjal the switch in the center of his chest; He immediately felt the repulsion of the newly activated shield on the blade.

"On guard!" Halleck shouted, and the doll launched into the attack.

Paul activated the shield, stopped and counterattacked.

Gurney watched him as he manipulated the controls. His mind seemed to split into two: one alert to the development of training, and the other drifting through the clouds.

_'I am a well-cared fruit tree'_ he thought to himself._ 'Full of good feelings and skills and all those beautiful things that grow in me ... so that someone else can collect them'_

For some reason, he remembered his younger sister, with his elf face defined in his mind. But she had died ... in a house of pleasure for the Harkonnen troops.

Paul dodged a slow blow of the doll and threw an entrestisser with his left.

_'That cunning little demon!'_ Gurney thought, concentrating on Paul's complex movements. _'He has practiced and studied on his own. That is not Duncan's style, he has never been able to teach him anything like that.'_

The training with the automatic doll continued, and Gurney kept thinking about Paul's strange reflexes.

* * *

After finishing the training, Paul decided to meet his father who was waiting for him on a balcony overlooking Caladan. He found him standing with both hands resting on the battlements, watching the sunset of the afternoon that gave the sea a bright appearance and the sky dyed a light orange.

"Father," Paul called, approaching his side, and he turned to look at him.

The Duke was tall, olive skinned. His long, thin face was carved in hard angles, softened only by deep gray eyes. He wore a dark green uniform with the red heraldic hawk embroidered on his chest. A silver shield belt belted his thin waist for use as a belt in his pants the same color as the uniform.

The expression would be of his father changed to that of a benevolent and kind one.

"Thank you for coming, son," Duke Leto Atreides said softly. "Has the work been hard?"

It really was for Paul; He had felt tired when he had to fight Gurney and the automatic doll to test his skills and reflexes. That was a fatigue for him, but he made a hard effort to show us. 'I will have to take every opportunity to rest during the trip to Arrakis,' he thought. 'In Arrakis I will not have time to do it'

"Not very hard," Paul replied simply. "Everything is ..." He shrugged.

"I understand you, son," said his father, glancing from his eyes through the castle, the sea, and the evening light. "Tomorrow we will leave. It will be good to settle in our new home and leave the anguish behind"

Paul nodded silently, and a melancholy made him shiver completely, as if he were witnessing the last moments of being with his father. He felt sadness, pain and uncertainty. The Reverend Mother's words kept harassing him inside her mind, causing him to feel disoriented, believing he was speaking with a hallucination instead of his real father.

"Father," Paul spoke, trying to be formal, "do you think Arrakis will be as dangerous as everyone says?"

His father made a casual gesture, and his gaze was fixed on the vast silent sea, with barely the slightest sound of the waves moving. That look was distant and flat.

"It will be dangerous," he admitted.

"But we have the Fremen. Thufir has told me that, while studying in the Mentats arts, we could establish a trust with them."

"Have I ever told you about Salusa Secundus?"

"The prison planet? No," Paul had said in denial. Salusa Secundus was the third planet that was located in Gamma Waiping, considered in the past to be a prosperous world in vegetation and minerals, as well as having an indigenous fauna and a temperate climate. It had been the home of the House Corrino during the years of the establishment of the Empire as a totalitarian hegemony in the galaxy, until everything changed when the planet was bombarded by the use of atomic weapons orchestrated by the House Tantor; being the reason for an uprising against the Corrino monarchy.

The imperial capital had been moved to the planet Kaitain in the Alpha Waiping star system along with the intact Corrino family. Emperor Padishah Hassik III attacked the House Tantor as the cause of the assassination, declaring the complete elimination of the House renounced on the planet Tantor when a fleet of ships was launched that caused a great destruction on the planet and the death of thousands of innocents.

With the entire planet devastated, and with a deadly and arid environment, Salusa Secundus was reused as a prison where the criminals of the Empire were sent there, exposed to the extreme conditions represented by the yermic world.

"What if it were more than a prison planet, Paul? There's a question you've never asked yourself about the Imperial Body of the Sardaukars: where do they come from?"

"From the planet Salusa Secundus prison?"

"They come from somewhere"

Paul tried to process what his father was getting ... until he understood.

"Father, I don't understand; do the Sardaukars have a plot in this?"

"You see, son," he explained condescendingly, his father. "The production of the melange spice is very important for the Empire, since it is a product highly demanded and used by consumers in different ways. The CHOAM Company gave me the command to be the new production supervisor in Arrakis, and as another gift, they granted me a directory under the order of His Majesty as a show of generosity ... a subtle advantage"

"CHOAM controls the spice," said Paul.

"And Arrakis with his spice will open the doors of CHOAM" added Duke Leto. "There is much more to CHOAM than melange. Few are the products that are beyond CHOAM's control: logs, mules, horses, cows, wood, manure, sharks, whale skins ... the most prosaic and the most exotic ... even our poor Caladan pundi rice. Anything that the Guild can transport: the works of art of Ecaz, the machines of Richese and Ix. But all this is nothing next to the melange. A handful of spice it is enough to buy a house in Tulipe. It cannot be manufactured, it has to be extracted from Arrakis. It is unique, and its geriatric properties are indisputable"

"And we control it now," Paul added.

"Up to a point," his father specified. "But the important thing is to consider that all the Great Houses depend on the benefits of CHOAM. And think that a huge proportion of these benefits depend on a single product: the spice. Imagine what would happen if something reduced the production of melange."

"A revolt caused by workers and a private storage of melange?"

"Exactly," Duke Leto nodded. "Not only the Harkonnen have mistreated the workers in Arrakis, but they have stored the spice for twenty years. Think of the Council of the Great Noble Houses of the Landsraad who would react to see I was responsible for a serious reduction in their benefits. After all, benefits are the only thing that counts, everyone will lean toward the other side, without supporting anything I do, we know that the Harkonnen have stored melange, so let us ask another question: Who else has been storing it? It's on the list of our enemies"

"Who?" Paul asked.

"Some Houses that we know are enemies, and some others that we thought were friends. But it is not necessary to take this into account at the moment, since there is also someone much more important than all of them: our well-loved Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV"

Paul suddenly noticed that his mouth was dry.

"You could summon Landsraad and expose him ..."

"To inform our enemies that we know whose hand the knife is holding?" He cut Duke Leto. "Now we see the knife. Who can know who will wield it tomorrow? If we show all this to Landsraad, all we can do is create enormous confusion. Emperor Padishah will deny it all. How can we refute it? We may gain some time, but risking chaos. And where will the next attack come from?"

"The Sardaukars ..." Paul acknowledged, "... the Sardaukars are the next attack"

His father smiled at his objectivity.

"A very successful point seen from the perspective of a noble son educated by a Mentat. The Harkonnen will receive help from the disguised Sardaukars to go unnoticed when they invade Arrakis. The Sardaukars are recognized for their deadly combat techniques, something that should only if it is required in an arid and infernal environment to have such heavily trained and trained soldiers; only Salusa Secundus can meet those expectations. The only option to fight with an army of that caliber is to have another army of the same caliber."

"The Fremen"

"We have there a potential force as important and as deadly as the Sardaukars. It will take a lot of patience to train it secretly and a lot of money to equate it effectively. The Fremen are there ... and also the spice, with all the wealth that it entails. Do you understand now why we are going to Arrakis, even knowing the trap it represents?"

"Do the Harkonnen know nothing about the Fremen?"

"The Harkonnen despise the Fremen. They hunt them for sport, they have never worried about censoring them. We know well the Harkonnen's policy regarding planetary populations: keeping them at the lowest possible cost" The metal plot that formed the falcon symbol in his chest flashed when Duke Leto Atreides changed position. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," Paul had said, understanding the whole plan built by his father. "Let's negotiate with the Fremen"

"And for that, I sent Duncan Idaho in the second wave to Arrakis," his father added. "Duncan is a proud and determined man, but he respects the truth. The Fremen will admire him. If we are lucky, they will judge us by taking him as a model: Duncan the honest"

"Duncan the honest" Paul repeated with a joking tone, "and Gurney the courageous"

"Exactly" his father recognized him, smiling at him. "I have known that your performance in practice with weapons has been improving professionally, as well as your sense of orientation and observation, a definite feature among the Mentats. Thufir ensures that you are the best student he has had. Yueh, Gurney and Duncan think the same. I'm proud"

"I want you to be," Paul said, a melancholy peeking out in his voice.

His father nodded at him, and his gaze fixed as the blackness of the afternoon was hovering over the sky. Sea currents resonated with the change of movement. A warm breeze bellowed, wrapping father and son with his heady freshness. The banner blew in the breeze, as if it were a snake in motion.

"I will miss the sea," Duke Leto finally said after a moment of silence. "You need new experiences. They stir something inside us that allows us to grow. Without changes, something sleeps inside us that rarely wakes up."

Paul kept silent, letting his father's words enter his mind and be stored in his brain's memory.

"The sleeper must wake up" The Duke's voice was low, harsh, and grim. His hand clenched the edge of the battlement tightly, stiffening.

For a moment, Paul thought he saw the features of a skull on his father's face. He tried to put aside even that terrible purpose he saw when he saw the phantasmagoric feature on his father's face, as if it were an omen of bad omen, making him understand that death loomed over those who had the hours counted.

_'The sleeper must wake up ...'_

* * *

In the dark private chambers that had belonged to the Atreides dukes for generations, Jessica and Leto were in romantic arms, wrapped in a soft crimson sheet that covered their naked bodies.

Leto walked gently through her lover's silky hair, and she spoke to him tenderly.

"I told you that I would conceive a daughter in our game"

"I remember," Leto had said in the same tone, smiling. "Conceived with love to our departure" His happy expression changed to a gloomy one, breaking his gaze with his lover and putting it on the ceiling, believing to seek an answer to his uncertainty that he ate inside him. "But Arrakis is a hostile world"

"I want to be sure you love her," Jessica said, burying her face in Leto's neck; Her tone came out as a needy desire. She stroked her lover's chin with her fingers in an affectionate gesture. "It must be tonight ... under this influence"

Leto stroked her cheek with his nose, then kissed her on the lips, feeling the tenderness and devotion of her beloved duke who processed him, making her feel intoxicated by the love she gave him to feel the touch of his lips with his .

She did not know that all this would have consequences when making a decision that completely changed the strategy planned by Sisterhood Bene Gesserit by being chosen for her previously qualified skill when she had been a young student in the arts of Sisterhood.

She was chosen by the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam to carry out her mission as a concubine of Duke Leto Atreides to be impregnated and have a female offspring where the following plan would subsequently be made: that an Atreides daughter be betrothed by a Harkonnen heir to save both lines genetic and that the two beget the Kwisatz Haderach, the superior human who would bring the balance in the galaxy. But she did not ... did not continue with the plan entrusted by the Sisterhood that there was so much faith ... but really fell in love with her conjugue.

At first glance, Duke Leto Atreides was a cold, reserved and serious man, but when he began to know him more thoroughly through his marital political union, he discovered that the Duke's attitude was a facade to cover up for an honest, admired, kind person , affectionate and gentle. Duke Leto Atreides proved to be an individual who cared for others and always won the admiration of others for his fair and loyal attitude. He treated her like a lady instead of a simple concubine who served as an ornament; He made her feel comfortable when he was always by her side, and with that, her feelings loosed inside her.

She fell deeply in love with Duke Leto, reaching such a point that he decided not to continue with the plan to breed a female, but a male, male heir who would continue with the lineage of the Atreides in Caladan.

She knew that this would bring serious consequences by jeopardizing an ancient plan that would bring salvation to the human race from its entrenched stagnation by the mere fact of having fallen in love with a noble man who could get his emotions repressed by duty to be open. of his repression.

All Bene Gesserit must be cold in not feeling appreciation for any individual or experiencing profane feelings such as love, and she rebelled at his duty.

She did it for love. She did it to have a family. She did it to be something else: a new opportunity in life to be a duke's partner.

"I haven't heard you with the wind," Jessica replied in a whisper.

"I have whispered yes," Leto said, kissing him on the forehead.

"And I whisper ..." Jessica's hand stroked her cheek, "... I love you"

The two lovers were wrapped in kisses and friction with their bodies as the whistle of the sea and the scourge of the breeze were heard outside in the middle of a starry night.

* * *

The moment of departure to Arrakis had begun in the middle of the night when the Atreides entered a transport ship of the Guild in the spaceport of Caladan along with the others waiting to take off.

The frigates transport ships were large that could land and take off successfully from the surface of a planet in one piece. They were described by having a quadrangular design where about thirty people could fit inside and with wings in the form of plates. They were used for the move when it was required that all the members of a great noble House chosen to occupy a planetary fief had to be transported to their destination. The transport ships picked them up first, and then they were taken to a Heighliner who were waiting for them in the space to make the trip.

The transport was paid by Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV as a sign of solidarity towards Duke Leto by ruling the Arrakis fief as the new supervisor of the melange spice.

Paul and his parents were in the upper chamber, sitting in crimson-lined seats and brass walls, watching through the windows as the transport ship amounted to ten thousand kilometers high, leaving Caladan's night sky behind and entering in outer space covered with stars that shone like candles in the middle of the darkness.

The frigate transport ship sailed along with the others in an orderly row position that headed towards the open hangars of an immense cylindrical nave about twenty kilometers long and jet-surface that was suspended in space.

The Heighliners were spacecraft used in the transport of planetary migrations with the shipment of the transport frigates filled with passengers when they were stored in the hangars at the time of doubling the space with the activation of Holtzman Engines and directed by a Navigator and a helmsman.

A coupling sound was heard when the frigate where the Atreides traveled parked on their platform.

"Soon they will fold the space," said Duke Leto in a uniform and calm voice.

_'We will travel without moving,'_ said Paul internally, fascinated to experience space travel with his parents.

Space folding is the alteration of reality when the space-time fabric is deformed to ensure a faster trip from one point to another without the use of jump engines; a method used by the scientist Tio Holtzman during the time of the Butlerian Jihad where an FTL engine was required that could go unnoticed and attack the Thinking Machines by surprise.

With the application of the theory of crossing the veil of reality specified by Holtzman, the first FTL engine was designed that could meet the expectations in the war that helped give great victories to humanity, and was later used on cruise ships newly formed Spacing Guild by Aurelius Venport as an independent corporation in providing the monopoly of space flights at the beginning of the Empire in the Great Convention where they would be the only company that guaranteed such trips through the galaxy in exchange for the established payment.

In outer space, the Heighliner's Holtzman engines shone in a bright bluish tone with clear contours, followed by a fluttering density that enveloped the cylindrical cruiser. The material plane of space blackness was distorted, and in an instant, the Heighliner disappeared from reality.

Then, for a minute on a strip of the galaxy, the Heighliner materialized as a supernatural spooky apparition in the middle of the space sea.

Below, about six hundred kilometers away, was a planet of orange contours due to its vast rough and unpopulated wilderness of some green area on its surface of pure sand and mountain ranges that were seen in the form of drawn strokes.

That was Arrakis, known as Dune, the Desert Planet, home of the melange spice, and residential home of the House Atreides.

* * *

Located in an unidentified cave on the vast sandy and rocky surface that made up Arrakis, an old woman with a wrinkled face dressed in a black suit whose hood, thrown back, revealed a mass of gray hair tightly in a bun, raised her left arm and opened the palm of his hand as if trying to catch the wind. The old woman's intense bluish eyes shone with a fleeting flash in them.

"And now, the prophecy" the old woman intoned with religious and prophetic sermon. "The chosen one will arrive. The voice of the outside world, which will bring holy war, the Jihad, which will purify the universe and bring us out of darkness."

* * *

The frigates landed in the spaceport about three distances from the Arrakeen Palace. Soldiers in cream uniforms formed ranks when Duke Leto and his family left the frigate as they walked along a crimson carpet that was deployed on the ground when walking on it. The sun of Arrakis received them by an intense welcome light as well as the heat that the planet produced, although it did not affect them by feeling overwhelming.

The Atreides family was accompanied by their soldiers who followed them in a march in unison, with the banners of the representative banner turning them in circular movements at a well-developed pace when they hoisted them in arches when the Atreides family climbed up the steps into the open interior of the Grand Palace.

Duke Leto separated from his wife and son when he explained that he had to monitor the progress of the second and third waves of Duncan Idaho and Thufir Hawat.

He crossed a spacious square room with pillars in each corner, a floor built of ceramic with steps that led to two open doors. There was a rectangular cabinet attached to the wall and a desk in the center of the room with handcrafted chairs with dedication when stacked. The entire room was illuminated by the open windows that let in the sunlight of Arrakis.

A few steps were heard at the door on the north side, and from it came a young man with a tan complexion and a fine feature, looking very handsome. He had curly black hair and his eyes were greenish blue. He wore a dark brown suit with flexible designs for the individual's comfort.

Leto Atreides smiled happily to see that his faithful friend, Duncan Idaho, was alive.

"Duncan" Leto said with relief and joy when he hugged him in fraternal affection and then released him.

"The Fremen send you a message, my lord," Duncan replied, handing him a pen-shaped cylinder. Leto grabbed it, uncovered it and read the message silently.

"Have you read it?" asked the Duke.

"No," Duncan replied by shaking his head, "they told me it was for you."

Leto read the message written in a not very loud voice.

"It says:_ 'A column of smoke by day, a bonfire by night'._" He looked at him questioningly after reciting it.

"A warning," Duncan specified.

"Very dark," he said grimly. "What have you discovered about the Fremen? Tell me. Why haven't we heard from you?"

"My lord," Duncan spoke anxiously, "I have suspicions. They are the allies we seek. They are strong, relentless. They show loyalty to every test. As you know, the Empire has never been able to censor the Fremen. It is believed that there are some few wandering in the desert. My lord, I suspect that this planet harbors an incredible secret. That the Fremen exist in large numbers. They control Arrakis"

The Duke was silent, stunned by the revelation Duncan just told him.

There were Fremen, many Fremen, perhaps thousands, hidden in each hidden area without being seen.

* * *

What was a great dark room, was illuminated with the light of the flying suspensors and the opening of the windows by the Atreides soldiers when unloading and moving the boxes and trunks. Some scanned walls, floors, ceilings, corners; others were installing equipment and patrolling the surroundings of the Grand Palace, in search of a possible deadly trap devised by the Harkonnen without being seen.

Lady Jessica and doctor Wellington Yueh went down the stairs to monitor security performance.

Apparently everything was normal, without any singularity or mishap, although one should not be distracted or let your guard down. The danger could attack at any time, even when it is in an unknown place, especially a planet where the most requested product is produced throughout the galaxy.

"My lady," said a senior-looking female soldier who was accompanied by a young female subordinate and two men carrying their weapons at hand, "the native servants await your inspection. Hawat approves them."

Jessica observed at the front of the room that there were twenty women in green clothes and brown shawls. They were Fremen just by seeing them in their bluish eyes without white sclera. Some were brunettes and others caucasian. All of them were standing, straight and silent, waiting for the order of their new mistress.

She came over to inspect them all, but Yueh stopped her by placing her hand on his man.

"Excuse me, my lady," he said in a noble and polite tone. "The Harkonnen could have manipulated them" Yueh activated a device with a light where a yellow light was lit in its hole. A poison and narcotic detector that he always carried in extreme emergency.

The yellow light of the detector advanced on the face of each Fremen maid in search of one being influenced by a deadly narcotic. The soldiers were firm, with weapons ready in case of opening fire at the time of order.

"When you pronounce the name ... I didn't know you had reason to hate them," Jessica told him she was at his side, scrutinizing it with her observant look that every Bene Gesserit woman had to find out if a person was lying or telling the truth just by seeing the body language expression that said individual had.

"My wife ..." Jessica noticed that Yueh's tone was melancholic when she spoke, distressed and sad about a personal loss. "You didn't get to know her. The Hark ..." The doctor's voice broke when he spoke the name of his enemies again.

"I am sorry," Jessica apologized, feeling guilty for investigating more about the personal medical problem._ 'They killed her, in that I can be sure'_

"No," Yueh replied. "I'm the one who should apologize. It's something I can't talk about it."

She kept silent, continuing her work of processing some other detail that she let out ... and found it.

_'Hide something,'_ she told herself, noticing that Yueh's lips were trembling and getting wet. His gaze focused on the dark diamond that was on his forehead. _'But it has Imperial Conditioning. Guarantees his loyalty'_ She looked at the maids who were being processed by the detector, and noticed one that was moving.

Jessica described her as short, and older. She wore the traditional attire of the maids of the Grand Palace of Arrakeen, her face was wrinkled, gray hair collected with a black stick as a knot. And there were his eyes, those deep blue eyes without the least white, secret and mysterious, as if he wanted to tell her something when she walked and stood still and not moving.

Without her noticing, in a corner where no guard or servant is seen during the landing of the move, a white-black domestic cat watched them with a computer glow in her feline eyes, collecting everything that happened to be lying quietly.

* * *

Three dead bodies belonging to Harkonnen soldiers were sent to the medical room where Wellington Yueh would be responsible for saying it. They undressed them and put them on each stretcher, covered by the blanket of white cloth being embalmed to avoid the smell of the rigus mortis.

Yueh, dressed in a transparent suit when he had surgery, began to inspect the first body that was in the X-ray bed. The bronze mirror where the lifeless body of soldier Harkonnen was reflected had a lever with a viewfinder that allowed him to see the dead body of the enemy soldier.

He passed the magnifying glass down, and spotted a tiny object, almost like a lipstick in the region of the small intestine.

_'My message. He's here'_ He prepared to make an incision in his abdomen with the scalpel at hand, but he had to stop when he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the medical room.

Yueh moved an x-ray viewer in the head area just in time when the old figure of Thufir Hawat had appeared, wearing a dark wool coat that covered his uniform.

"More corpses of the enemy will arrive for your inspection, Dr. Yueh," the Mentat replied as he stopped at the north end of the bed. "You're good?"

"Yes, perfectly," Yueh lied, cursing internally for not showing a passive and serene expression when Mentat could detect him if he gave a nervous signal. He continued talking, trying to distract him. "Thank you, Thufir."

Thufir nodded his head in understanding, and then left where he had come from.

Seeing that he was alone, Yueh proceeded to use the scalpel in the area where the capsule was with the message.

He made the incision in the abdomen by sinking the leaf into the cold skin, as if trying to cut the richest part of the meat. He extracted the capsule with his gloved hand and proceeded to wash it in the cauldron that was on the table. He uncapped the capsule and proceeded to read the message.

His expression turned bleak when he understood what the action he had to do was, knowing maturely that it would lead to the death of all the people who welcomed him as a family member.

He had to do it, there was no other way but to continue with the plan ... even if it was necessary to carry the blame on his shoulders.

* * *

Around Lady Jessica, stacked in the corners of the great hall of Arrakeen, piled up in the open spaces, she was all her life, locked in trunks, packages, bags ... for the most part yet to open. She heard Guild unloaders carrying another cargo from the ship to the entrance.

Jessica was standing in the center of the room. She turned slowly, looking around the bas-reliefs that peeked in the shadows, the windows deeply carved into the thick walls. The gigantic anachronism of that room reminded him of the Hall of the Sisters at the Bene Gesserit School in Wallach IX. But at school the effect was warm and welcoming. Here, everything was hard stone.

Some architect had to dive deep into history to recreate those vaults and dark upholstery, she thought. The roof arch culminated two floors above it, with huge cross beams that, she was sure, transported to Arrakis at a fabulous cost. There was no planet in the system that possessed trees capable of providing such beams ... unless the beams were imitation wood.

She did not believe it.

That had been the residence of the government in the days of the Old Empire. The costs had not been very important then, long before the Harkonnen and their new Carthag megalopolis ... a place of bad taste and miserable two hundred kilometers to the northeast, beyond the Rugged Land. Leto had demonstrated his good judgment by choosing that place for government headquarters. Since his name, Arrakeen, sounded good, full of tradition. And it was a small city, easier to sanitize and defend.

He heard again the noise of the boxes that were unloaded at the entrance, and she sighed.

The portrait of Duke Leto's father was leaning against a cardboard box on his left. The cord that had attached the packaging hung on one side as frayed decoration. Jessica was still holding one end with her left hand. Next to the painting was the head of a dark green bull with multiple horns mounted on a plate of polished wood. The head was an island in a sea of crumpled papers. The plaque was resting on the ground, and the gleaming bull's muzzle pointed toward the ceiling as if the animal was preparing to mute its challenge to the echo-filled room.

Jessica wondered what compulsion had pushed her to unpack those two objects in the first place ... the head and the paint. I knew there was something symbolic in that action. Never, since that day when Duke Leto's envoys had bought her at school, had she felt so scared insecure.

The head and the picture.

They accentuated his confusion. She shuddered, throwing a glance at the narrow windows above her head. It was early afternoon, but at that latitude the sky looked black and cold ... much darker than the warm blue of Caladan. She felt nostalgic for her lost world.

She was so far from Caladan.

"Here we are!"

It was the voice of Duke Leto.

She turned, watching him advance in long strides under the huge vault of the entrance. His light green work uniform with the heraldic red hawk looked dirty and wrinkled.

"I was afraid you would have lost yourself in this horrible place"

"It's a cold house," she said, and observed her high height, her skin that reminded her of the green of the olive trees under a golden sun reflected in a blue water. There was a wood smoke in the gray of his eyes, but his face was that of a predator: sharp, all angles and straight.

A sudden fear clutched his chest. He had become so wild, so authoritarian since he had decided to obey the order of Emperor Padishah.

"The whole city seems cold," she continued.

"It's a small, dirty and dusty city of garrison," Leto admitted. "But we'll change that." He looked around. "This is a room reserved for public events and state ceremonies. I just took a look at some of the family apartments in the south wing. They are much more welcoming." He approached her and touched her arm, admiring her dignity.

And then he wondered once again who his unknown parents would have been ... a renegade house, perhaps? Members of royalty fallen out of favor? His Majesty suggested imperial blood.

Under the pressure of his gaze, she turned slightly, revealing her profile. And he observed that there were no outstanding details imposed on all its beauty. His face was oval under the cascade of his bronze hair. His eyes, somewhat distant, were green and clear like Caladan's sky in the morning. His nose was small, his mouth large and generous. His figure was elegant but discreet: tall, thin and with few but well formed curves. She remembered that the sisters of the school called her skinny, so at least her emissaries had informed her. But it was too simplified description. Jessica had brought a line of real beauty to the Atreides line. She was happy that Paul had been favored by that.

"Where is Paul?"

"Somewhere in the house, taking Dr. Yueh's lessons"

"Probably in the south wing," said the Duke, "but I had time to look." He watched Jessica, doubting. "I came here just to hang the key of Castel Caladan in this room"

She held her breath ... it was a definitive act of resignation. But it was not the time or place to seek comfort.

"I've seen our banner when we arrive"

Duke Leto towards his father's portrait.

"On some of these walls"

"No" The word was clear and definitive, cutting off any attempt at persuasion. But anyway, she had to try, even if it only served to confirm that she could not always convince him with female cunning.

"My lord, if only ..."

"My answer is still no. I confess I am guilty of an indulgence towards you for a lot of things, but it is not. I just passed precisely through the dining room and I observed that there are ..."

"My lord! I beg you"

"The choice is between your digestion and your ancestral dignity, honey," replied Duke Leto calmly. "We will hang it in the dining room"

Jessica sighed in frustration.

"Yes my lord"

"As soon as possible you can return to eat as usual in your rooms. I will demand that you occupy your position only on official occasions."

"Thank you, my lord," she replied in a uniform tone.

"And don't be so cold and formal with me! Thank me for never having married you, honey. Otherwise, your duty would have been to be at the table with me at lunchtime."

"Thufir has already installed the poison detector on the table," he continued. "But there is a portable one in your room"

"You anticipated this ... discrepancy," Jessica said sarcastically.

"Dear, but think also of your comfort. I have hired maids. They are local, but Thufir has selected them ... they are all Fremen"

"I know that," Jessica explained softly. "Dr. Yueh and I have inspected each of them by introducing themselves in the entrance hall. All of them have a formal and educated education. Thuir Hawat has done well to hire them for us. But ... is there anyone in whom can you trust?"

"Everyone hates the Harkonnen. You may want to stay with the housekeeper: the Shadout Mapes"

"Shadout?" Jessica tilted her head. "A Fremen title?"

"I have been told that it means "digwells", a word full of important implications here. It may not correspond to your idea of the ideal servant, but Thufir speaks very well of it, based on a Duncan report. Both are convinced that want to serve ... and especially you"

"To me?" Jessica questioned.

"The Fremen have known that you are Bene Gesserit. And there are legends about the Bene Gesserit."

_'The Missioneria Protectiva'_ Jessica thought, remembering the explanation of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam about sending the religious arm to calm the natives of Arrakis and make them believe that each Bene Gesserit are priestesses consecrated to God in spreading his word. _'There is no place to escape them'_

"Does this mean that Duncan has succeeded?" she asked curiously. "Will the Fremen be our allies?"

"There is nothing specific yet," Duke Leto said. "Duncan believes that before they want to observe us a little. Anyway, they have promised not to plunder the neighboring towns during the truce. It is a more important achievement than it may seem. Thuir has told me that the Fremen are a huge thorn in the side of the Harkonnen, who keep the scope of their incursions secret. They did not want to ask Emperor Padishah for help so that they would not know the ineffectiveness of the Harkonnen military forces"

"A Fremen housekeeper," Jessica muttered, changing the subject as she returned to the subject of the Shadout Mapes.

"Do not be fooled by the appearance of these people," said the Duke. "They are very strong and deeply vital. I think they are precisely what we need."

"It's a dangerous game," Jessica said uncertainly.

"Let's not start over with this," he said.

She forced a smile.

"We are in this, there is no doubt about it." She concentrated on a quick return to calm exercise: two inspirations, ritual thinking, and then: "When I assign the rooms, is there one in particular that you want me to reserve for you?"

"Someday you have to teach me how you get this," said the Duke, "how to erase all the worries of your mind and return to practical things. It must be some Bene Gesserit trick."

"It's a female trick," she said proudly.

He smiled.

"Well, let's go back to the room assignment: find me a large room near my bedroom. There's going to be a lot more paperwork here than in Caladan. A room for the guard, of course. This will be enough. Don't worry about the safety of the house. Thufir's men have tracked it thoroughly"

"I'm sure they have." she specified.

Leto looked at his watch.

"And check that all our watches are set at Arrakeen's local time. I have assigned a technician to take care of it. He will be here shortly." He brushed a strand of hair that had fallen on his forehead. "Now I must return to the landing area. The second shipment will arrive from one moment to another."

"Couldn't Thufir take care of it, my lord? You seem so tired ..."

"The good Thufir is even busier than me. You know that this planet is infested with the intrigues of the Harkonnen. In addition, I must convince the best spice hunters to stay. With the change of fief, you know, they are free. to choose ... and the planetologist and a young man that Emperor Padishah and Landsraad have designated both as Judge of the Change cannot be bought. They have been given the option to choose freely. Almost eight hundred expert men wait to get on the ferry of the spice, and a Guild charge is awaiting them"

"My lord ..." Jessica broke off, and then spoke, choked, "... did you say a young? ... Is there a young who acts as Judge of the Change?"

"Of course it is, honey," Leto said, laughing out loud. "I was also surprised when Thufir informed me after he arrived in Arrakis. He is the same age as Paul, but a few years older than him ..."

"Could you describe me as the young, my dear," Jessica replied, somewhat confused and dismayed, thinking that it was possible that he was the same young who appeared in Paul's dream as a kind of anomaly ... it may even be possible Let him be accompanied by his cat.

"His height is that of a teenager between seventeen years" began to tell Duke Leto. "He has dark curly hair with a ruffled touch, and his eyes are a dark gray. He is accompanied by his pet; a black and white cat named Morgana. He! It's funny that his pet has a female name if one arrives. to confuse that it is really female, but it is male "

"... I see" Jessica forced a tone of good humor, suppressing the terrifying shudder that ran through her knowing that the young mystery existed. Paul's prophetic dream had been fulfilled with the perception of seeing the veil of the future. Trying to regain calm so that her lover didn't notice, Jessica spoke: "Does the boy have a name?"

"Ren Amamiya" replied the Duke. "That's his name"

"Ren Amamiya ..." Jessica repeated, trying to find a hidden meaning in the name of the identified mysterious young man who appeared as an anomaly in her son's dream. When he pronounced it mentally again, she remembered that the pronunciation was from Richese; whose culture and custom were identical to the inhabitants of Ix, although of different linguistics. At Bene Gesserit School it was important that all female students should know about all the cultural dialects that made up humanity, and one of those dialects was Richese, or Nippon, according to the ancient origin of the Old Earth. The way of writing of the inhabitants of Ix and Richese was some paths called "kanjis" that could be represented in names and objects with the use of two or more to mean a complete word. It would be frustrating to decipher it right now, but I had more questions for Leto. "Do you think there is a possibility that he can freely choose to help us?"

"In that I also asked Thufir about his alignment, and it seems he is determined to be on our side."

Jessica looked surprised.

"Will he help us? Are you sure?"

"I can put all my trust in the Mentat that has served the House of Atreides for five generations, although there is always the need that one must be sure to have the second opinion of a Bene Gesserit"

"When can I meet him?" Jessica told her, hiding her imperative anxiety of being face to face with the boy.

"In the morning dinner where important people will come as another method of getting more allies," Leto replied. "That is all I have to tell you, since I also have a strategic meeting pending with all the staff. I will send a servant or a guard so that Paul comes with me and knows how is the procedure that his father is always pending"

Jessica watched as he said goodbye with a confident countenance when closing the door and being submerged in a faint silence. Leto's voice rang in the hall, imperative and dismissive, in the tone with which he spoke with the servants when he was in a hurry:

"Lady Jessica is in the lobby. Meet her immediately."

Jessica faced the portrait of Leto's father. It had been performed by a famous artist, Albe, when the Old Duke was middle-aged. He had been painted a matador's dress, with a magenta cape hanging from his left arm. The face looked young, almost as much as Leto's today, and with the same hawk expression, the same gray look, and his name was honored to name his son. She clenched her fists against her sides, looking at the portrait with hate.

"Damn! Damn! Damn you!"

"What are your orders, Noble Born?"

It was a woman's voice, musical like a tense string.

Jessica turned, hiding her grief, and met the same short-stature woman in the main hall along with the other maids who had looked at him mysteriously when she moved into the second row of maids.

The woman bowed her head respectfully, pronouncing her name politely.

"They call me the Shadout Mapes, Noble Born. What are your orders?"

"You can call me my Lady," Jessica corrected seriously. "I was not born noble. I am the titular concubine of Duke Leto"

Again that strange nod, and the woman looked up at Jessica with an insidious response:

"Is there then a woman?"

"There is not, nor has there ever been. I am the only ... companion of the Duke, the mother of his designated heir"

As he spoke, Jessica laughed to himself for the pride that conveyed his words. _'What did Saint Augustin say? The mind orders itself and finds resistance. Yes ... lately he finds a greater resistance. I should calmly withdraw into myself'_

A strange scream rang out there on the road. A repeated shout:

_"Suu-suu-suuk!"_ and then: _"khut-eigh!"_ and then again:_ "Suu-suu-suuk!"_

"What is that?" Jessica questioned. "I've heard that scream on the street several times this morning"

"He is only a water seller, my Lady. But he has no interest for you. The tanks of this dwelling contain fifty thousand liters, and they are always full." She bowed her head and looked at her clothes. "See it, my Lady, I don't need to take my stillsuit here!" She smiled. "And I have not died!"

Jessica hesitated, wanting to ask that Fremen woman some questions, feeling the need to guide her. But the most urgent was to put some order in the castle. Anyway, the idea that in that place water was a sign of wealth puzzled her.

"My husband has told me that your title is Shadout," said Jessica authoritatively and superiorly. "It's a very old word"

"Do you know the ancient languages?" Mapes asked in amazement.

"Languages are the first Bene Gesserit teaching," Jessica intoned sternly, looking authoritative. "I know Bhotani-jib and Chakobsa, all the languages of hunters"

Mapes nodded.

"As the legend says"

_'Why am I representing this comedy? But Bene Gesserit roads are always winding and compulsive,'_ she thought, frustratingly.

"I know the Dark Things and the ways of the Great Mother," said Jessica. She read, in the aspects of Mapes, in each of her gestures, the most revealing signs. _"Miseces prejia"_ she spoke in the Chakobsa language. _"Andal you're pear! Trada cik buscakri miseces perakri"_

Mapes stepped back, ready to flee.

"I know a lot of things," Jessica continued dramatically. "I know that you have fathered children, that you have lost loved ones, that you have hidden yourself out of fear and that you have committed violence and that you will commit more violence again. I know many things."

"I didn't mean to offend you, my Lady," Mapes said softly.

"You talk about legends and you look for an answer. Beware of the answers you can find. I know that you have come here prepared for violence, with a gun in your bodice"

"My Lady, I ..."

"There is a remote possibility that you will be able to shed the blood of my life," Jessica said, "but if you did it you would cause more damage than you can imagine in your craziest terrors. There are worse things than death, you know it ... even for a whole town "

"My lady!" Implored Mapes. He seemed about to fall to his knees. "This weapon is a gift for you if you can prove that you are Her"

"And the instrument of my death if I can't prove it," Jessica corroborated. She waited in the apparent calm that made the Bene Gesserit as terrible as in combat.

Slowly, Mapes reached into the neck of her dress and took out a dark sheath. A black hilt, deeply engraved to secure the grip, emerged from it. She took the holster with one hand and the hilt with the other extracted a leaf of a milky white color. She brandished it above his head and the blade seemed to glow with its own light. It was double-edged, like a kindjal, and the blade would be about twenty-centimeters long.

"Do you know this, my Lady?"

_'It couldn't be anything else,'_ Jessica told herself, _'that Arrakis's fabulous crys knife, a blade that had never left that planet and that other parts was a rumor and a mystery.'_

"It's a crys"

"Don't pronounce it lightly," said Mapes. "Do you know the meaning of this name?"

_'This is a double-edged question. Here is the reason why this Fremen wanted to serve with me, that is why she asked me so many questions. My response may precipitate violence or ... what? It requires an answer from me: the meaning of this knife. They call it Shadout in the Chakobsa language, it is the "maker of death." It is getting impatient. I have to answer now. Delaying an answer is as dangerous as a false answer.'_

"He's a maker ..." Jessica began to say, but Mapes cut her off by letting out a kind of scream that made her shiver in surprise.

"Aiiiieeeee!" It was the sound of pain and relief. She was trembling so violently that a knife blade created reflections throughout the room.

Jessica waited, motionless. She was going to say that the knife was a death maker and add the old tongue, but now all the senses warned her with the intensity of her training capable of revealing the meaning of the least muscle shudder.

The keyword was maker.

_'Maker? Maker was then'_

However, Mapes was holding the knife as if he were willing to use it.

"How could you think that I, knowing the mysteries of the Great Mother, was not going to know the maker?"

"My Lady, when one has lived so long with the prophecy, the moment of revelation is a shock"

Jessica thought about the prophecy ... the Shari-a and all the Panoplia Propheticus; a Bene Gesserit of the Missioneria Protectiva had been sent there many centuries before; He had long since died, there was no doubt about it, but she had fulfilled her purpose: the protective legends solidly implanted in that town for the day that a Bene Gesserit needed them.

The day had come when the Atreides received the fief.

Mapes returned his knife to its holster, and said:

"This is an unstable leaf, my Lady. Always carry it with you. If it stays more than a week away from the flesh, it will begin to disintegrate. It is a Shai-Hulud tooth, it will remain with you for as long as it lasts."

Jessica held out her right hand and risked saying:

"Mapes, you have returned the sheet to its case without having it marked by blood"

With a stifled exclamation, Mapes put the sheathed knife in Jessica's hand and tore her bodice.

"Take the water of my life!"

Jessica removed the sheet from its holster. She pointed it directly at Mapes, and saw in her eyes a panic greater than death.

_'A poison on the tip?'_ she wondered. She lifted the blade, tracing a delicate scratch on the left side of the housekeeper's side with the blade side. A few drops of blood arose that stopped almost immediately. Ultra-fast coagulation, Jessica thought._ 'A mutation to conserve moisture in your body?'_

She put the sheet in its sheath, and said:

"Button your dress, Shadout Mapes"

The housekeeper obeyed, trembling. His eyes without white stared at her.

"You are ours. You are Her"

At the entrance the noise was heard again to unload the packages. Mapes took the sheathed knife and slipped it into Jessica's bodice.

"Anyone who sees that sheet must be purified or killed!" the housekeeper growled. "You know it, my Lady"

_'I just knew now,'_ Jessica thought with all the melodrama that was happening.

The downloaders, out there, left if they passed through the Great Hall.

Mapes regained his composure, and said:

"He who is impure and has seen the crys cannot leave Arrakis alive. Do not forget, my Lady. A crys has been entrusted." She took a deep breath. "Now things must take their course. Nothing can be rushed." She looked around the boxes and packages stacked around her. "And here there is a lot of work to let time pass"

Jessica hesitated. "Things must take their course." A typical phrase that came directly from the spell reserves of the Missioneria Protectiva ... the coming of a Reverend Mother who would free Arrakis from the imperial yoke.

"What is the first thing you want me to do, my Lady?" Mapes said quietly.

The instinct pushed Jessica to respond in a casual tone.

"The painting of the Old Duke, this one, must be placed on one of the walls of the dining room. The head of the bull on the opposite wall"

Mapes approached the bull's head.

"It had to be a huge animal to have such a big head." The housekeeper leaned over her. "Should I clean it first, my Lady?"

"No," Jessica replied seriously.

"But the dirt has been embedded in the horns."

"It's not dirt, Mapes. It's the blood of our Duke's father. Those horns were treated with a transparent fixative a few hours after this animal killed the Old Duke."

Mapes stood up.

"Eh?"

"It's just blood," Jessica said simply. "Very old blood. Find someone to help you hang this up. Those damn things are heavy."

"Do you think a little blood impresses me?" Mapes asked. "I come from the desert, and I have seen blood in abundance.

"Yes ... I'm convinced of it," Jessica said.

"And sometimes that blood was mine," said Mapes. "Much more blood than your chafe has produced."

"Would you have preferred it cut more deeply?"

"Oh, no! The body water is already scarce, and there is no need to waste it spreading it through the air. You have acted correctly."

And Jessica, through the words and the way of saying them, captured the profound implications of that phrase, "body water." She felt again the oppressive sensation of the importance of water in Arrakis.

"On which side of the dining room should I hang these beautiful things, my Lady?" Mapes asked.

Always practical, this Mapes, Jessica thought.

"Use your good judgment, Mapes. It really doesn't matter."

"As you wish, my Lady." Mapes bowed and began to free his head from the remains of the packaging. "So he killed an old duke, you say?" she murmured softly.

"Do I call someone to help you?" Jessica asked.

"I will manage myself, my Lady."

_'Yes, he will manage,'_ Jessica thought._ 'That is something that Fremen really possesses: the will to finish what he undertakes.'_ Jessica felt the cold contact of the crys in her bodice, and thought of the long chain of intrigues Bene Gesserit, and the new link that had just been forged there. Thanks to that chain, he had managed to survive a deadly crisis. "You can't rush anything," Mapes had said. And yet, the rush dominated that place, filling Jessica with apprehension. And not even all the preparations of the Missionaria Protectiva, not even the thorough inspections made by Thufir Hawat in that huge cluster of stones that was the castle, had managed to dispel their dark omens.

"When you're done with this, start unpacking the packages," Jessica said. "One of the arresters is in the main entrance with all the keys, and will tell you where to put everything. Have me give you the keys and the list. If you have to ask me any questions, I'll be in the south wing."

"As you wish, my Lady."

Jessica walked away, thinking to herself:_ 'Thufir will have judged this residence as safe, but there is something threatening in this place. I feel it.'_ An urgent need to corroborate the entire interior of the castle made her leave the place and go to inspect each corner for a possible secret entrance, leaving the housekeeper with her corresponding work.

"It's She, there's no doubt," she murmured. "Poor woman"

* * *

Paul had woken up from his rest in regaining his strength from the arduous combat training with Gurney in Caladan. As he had promised himself that a nap would help him recover physically, he decided to do so in his room selected by his father where he earned his due during the landing of the move in the palace.

His attention went to the carved headboard of the bed: a false headboard fixed on the wall and hiding the controls of the room. It was a flying fish carved out of wood with dark waves beneath it. Paul knew that, by squeezing the only visible eye of the fish, he operated the room's suspension lamps. One of the waves, when turned, controlled the ventilation. Another regulated the temperature.

Gently, Paul sat on the bed. A high bookshop occupied the wall on the left. Turning it on one of its sides, it revealed a small back room with drawers on one of its sides. The door handle would have been outside in the shape of the ornithopter's joystick.

The room seemed to have been designed to seduce him.

The room and that planet.

He thought of the bookfilm that Yueh had shown him ... _"Arrakis: The Experimental Botanical Station of His Imperial Majesty's Desert."_ It was an old bookfilm, prior to the discovery of the spice. A swarm of names fluttered in his mind, each with his photograph thanks to the book's mnemonic impulses: saguaro, donkey bush, date palm, sand verbena, sunset primrose, barrel cactus, incense bush, tree smoke, creosote bush ... mimetic fox, desert hawk, kangaroo mouse ...

Names and images arising from man's earthly past ... and many of which could not be found anywhere in the galaxy, except Arrakis.

Paul slipped out of the bed, heading for the bookstore that opened in the back room. He stopped and turned when he heard a noise behind him. The size of the head of the bed leaned forward. Paul remained motionless, and this immobility saved his life.

From the inside of the head a cylinder that shared similarity with a medical syringe and whose description was no more than five centimeters long slipped. Paul recognized him immediately: a hunter-seeker, a murder weapon that every child of noble royal blood learned to recognize from a young age. The dangerous and fine metal needle, directed by an eye and a hand that were in the immediate vicinity. The needle pierced you in the living flesh and then made its way along the nervous system to the nearest vital organ.

The hunter-seeker rose, turned through the room, and returned to his point of origin.

His knowledge about the hunter-seeker limitations passed through his mind like lightning: the weak suspension field distorted the vision of the transmitting eye. With no other light source than ambient light, the operator had to rely on movement and attack everything that moved. The shield was on the bed. A laser gun could knock him down, but they were expensive and delicate weapons that needed constant maintenance, and if they stumbled upon an activated shield, there was a risk of a pyrotechnic explosion. The Atreides trusted their body shields and their abilities.

Now Paul had plunged into a catatonic immobility, knowing that he had only to rely on his ability to face danger.

The hunter-seeker rose to half a meter. It continued to oscillate in the plot of shadows and clarity of the window, probing the room.

_'I must seize him,'_ thought Paul. _'But the suspension field will make it slippery. I must hold it very strong'_

To his surprise, when the object turned towards the bed, a cat had just appeared on the south side of the bed, and with rapid speed, he threw himself towards the murderous weapon, gripping the cylindrical edge with his jaw when he pounced.

Seeing that the object was trying to stay suspended in the air by the weight managed by the domestic feline that had mysteriously come to his aid, Paul grabbed the hunter-seeker of the cat's jaw quickly, and crushed the tip with the needle in the wall near its northeast side, destroying it completely.

Paul sat on his bed, letting out a deep groan and pulling sweat from his forehead. His heart kept beating at the adrenaline that ran through the moment of tension that had passed. It was fortunate that the cat had appeared at the right time when the hunter-seeker turned to the right in search of seismic activity of any movement.

"Thank you, it seems that I owe you one for helping me," Paul thanked him, and the cat returned the nod with a nod, sitting on the surface of his bed.

_'Where did it come from? I don't remember that Arrakis had cats'_. Paul studied the animal, intrigued by his strange appearance that had come out under the bed when the hunter-seeker emerged from the head.

When he detailed his fur, he stayed dry, his gaze very fixed and petrified like a statue: black with white, a yellow strap around his neck, and intense blue eyes.

_'No ... it can't be possible! No way!'_ He was startled internally, but his mind made him land in the reality that he was in front of the true cat he had seen in his dreams that had the same fur and the same feline face ... It was not an illusion, or that the Previous owners would have forgotten that one of their pets was escaped, but it was really happening.

"Who you are?" Paul demanded, still intrigued and overwhelmed by his sudden appearance.

The cat got up from the bed and headed towards the head, putting both front legs on the wooden fish, and began to move them in an excavation gesture.

Paul looked at him for a minute, and understood the gesture he was making: the operator from the other side.

The door to the room opened, and the figure of an older woman of short stature dressed in the maids' attire.

"Who are you?" Paul repeated again, but this time to the old woman.

"I am the Shadout Mapes, the housekeeper," the woman introduced herself with a bow and a polite voice. "His father sent me to look for him. There is a group of men waiting for him in the lobby to escort you" Mapes observed the damaged hunter-seeker and the feline that sniffed the head. "I have heard of that thing, they are very deadly when you make noise, and it seems that the animal has saved him"

"Of course he did," Paul said. "He appeared under my bed when he grabbed the hunter-seeker. Whose cat is it?"

"He owns the second Judge of the Change who was appointed by the Empire, and is staying in Arrakeen"

Paul was stunned, feeling like a chill ran through his body ... feeling that the second Judge of the Change was the teenager of his dream._ 'There is no doubt that there is coincidence and chance ... all this is real ... all this is really happening'_

"How did you know where to find me?"

"Her mother told me. I found her on the stairs leading to the strange chamber, in the hallway," she pointed to her right. "Your father's men are waiting."

_'They must be Thufir's men,'_ he thought. _'We have to discover the operator of this object'_

He got up from the bed, just like the cat did when he jumped down.

"Go meet them," Paul replied. "Inform them that I have taken a hunter-seeker in my room and that they should find the operator. That they immediately register the palace and the adjacent grounds. They know how to do it. The operator must surely be a stranger among us."

"Before I follow your orders, young master," Mapes said, "I must clear the road between us. You have placed a heavy load of water on me, and I am not sure I can bear it. But we Fremen pay our debts. "They are white or black. And we know there is a traitor among yours. We cannot say who he is, but we are sure that he exists. Perhaps it was his hand that guided this meat cutter."

Paul assimilated that in silence: a traitor.

Before he could speak, the housekeeper had turned and headed back toward the entrance.

He went to call her, but there was something about his attitude that made him think he wouldn't like it. She had told him what he knew and, now, he was following his orders. The house would be invaded by Hawat's men in a minute. His mind remembered some fragments of the conversation: the strange camera. He looked to his left, in the direction pointed by her._ 'We Fremen. So it was Fremen.'_ He paused for his mnemonic vision to register the pattern of his appearance in his memory: dark, wrinkled face, totally blue eyes, no white. He applied the label: The Shadout Mapes.

The cat meowed, and Paul saw the animal waving its head toward the shield belt next to the bed.

"Thank you" he thanked him again, taking it and putting himself around his pants. "Are you going with me?"

The cat nodded, walking outward open, followed by Paul closing the door behind.

* * *

Around the south wing, Jessica discovered a spiral metal staircase that ended in an oval door. She looked into the hall, and back to the door.

_'Oval?_' she wondered_. 'What a strange door to a house'_

Under the spiral staircase you could see windows and, behind it, the sunset. The long shadows extended to the hall. She turned her attention to the stairs. The strong light of dry land.

Jessica put a hand on the handrail and started to climb. The handrail was cold under his wet palm. He stopped at the door, noting that there was no handle, but only a slight depression at the door where the handle should have been. _'I don't think it's a palm lock,'_ she told herself.

A palm lock must conform to the shape of a particular hand and the lines of your palm. However, it looked like a palm lock. And she knew several ways to open a palm lock ... she had learned them at school.

Jessica looked behind her to be sure she was not observed, rested her palm on the depression of the door, turned her head and saw Mapes moving towards her at the bottom of the stairs.

"There are some men in the great hall: they say they have been sent by the Duke to escort the young master Paul," said Mapes. "They carry the ducal seal and the guard has identified them."

She looked at the door, then at Jessica.

_'Mapes is prudent,'_ Jessica thought. _'It's a good sign'_

"It's in the fifth room on this side of the lobby, a small bedroom," Jessica said. "If you have trouble waking him up, call Dr. Yueh who is in the next room. Paul may need a tonic injection."

Mapes directed another penetrating glance at the oval door, and Jessica detected hatred in her expression. Before Jessica could ask him about the door and what it was hiding, Mapes turned and hurried through the lobby.

_'Thufir has inspected this whole place,'_ Jessica thought._ 'There can be nothing terrible in there.'_ She pushed the door. It opened inward, revealing a small room with another oval door on the other side. The other door had a steering wheel as a handle.

_'A watertight gate!'_ She looked down and saw a fallen shoe on the floor of the small room. She wore the personal brand of Thufir Hawat.

_'I had to keep the door open,'_ she thought._ 'Someone probably hit it and accidentally knocked it down, and the outer door closed with the palm lock. She crossed the threshold and entered the small room. 'Why a waterproof gate in the house?'_ And suddenly she thought of exotic creatures isolated there in special climates.

Special climates!

It seemed logical in Arrakis, where even the driest plants in other places had to be watered. The door behind him began to close. She stopped her and blocked her with the shoe left by Thufir. Then she turned to the inner door with the steering wheel, and then she saw a tiny inscription engraved on the metal on the handle. She recognized the words in Galach and read:

_"Oh, man! Here is an adorable portion of God's Creation; look, and learn to love the perfection of Your Supreme Friend"_

Jessica pushed the wheel with all her weight. He tilted to the left and the door opened. A light breeze brushed her cheek, stroking her hair. She noticed a change in the air, a more intense smell. He opened the door completely, discovering a mass of vegetation illuminated by a golden light.

_'A yellow sun?'_ she wondered. And then: _'Filter glass!'_

She moved forward, and the door closed behind her.

"A greenhouse" she whispered. It was surrounded by potted plants and shrubs. She recognized a mimosa, a flowering quince, a probegi, a full of flowers still in bud, a striated akarso of green and white ... roses ... Even roses!

She leaned down to breathe the fragrance of a group of pink flowers, then sat up and looked around.

A rhythmic sound invaded his senses.

She pushed aside a wall of leaves and looked at the center of the room. She discovered there a low fountain, with the fluted pylon. The rhythmic noise was caused by a trickle of water that rose in an arc and then fell drumming on the metallic bottom of a pylon.

Jessica was in a state of increased perception, and began a methodical inspection of the perimeter of the room. It seemed to be about ten meters on its side. Because of its location at the end of the lobby and some subtle differences in its construction, he deduced that it had been added to that wing of the building long after the original construction.

She stopped on the south side of the room, before the large filter glass surface, looking around. Each useful space in the room was occupied by exotic plants typical of humid climates. Something moved in the greenery. She tensed, then relaxed when she saw the simple automatic servok with a hose and an irrigation arm. On the irrigation arm he carried a nebulizer, which projected a thin film of water near his cheek. The arm withdrew, and Jessica could see the watered plant: an arborescent fern.

There was water throughout the room ... on a planet where water was the most precious juice of life. So much wasted water made her immobilize, stunned.

She looked out to the yellow sun through the filter. It hung suspended from the sky, on a jagged horizon of peak rocks that formed part of the huge chain of rocky mountains known as the Shield Wall.

_'Filter glass,'_ she thought. Transform a white sun into something softer and more familiar._ 'Who has been able to conceive such a place? ¿Leto? It would be worth it to surprise me with such a gift, but he has not had time. And he has much more important problems to think about.'_ She recalled the report that many Arrakeen houses had sealed doors and windows with sealed gates to conserve and condense internal moisture. Leto had said that, as a deliberate declaration of power and wealth, that house ignored such precautions. Doors and windows were sealed only against the ubiquitous dust.

But that room implied a much more significant status than the absence of water seals on the exterior doors. She calculated that this pleasant room used as much water as necessary to support a thousand personnel in Arrakis ... possibly more.

Jessica moved along the glass wall, continuing her exploration of the room. She moved to a metal surface that she observed near the fountain, a table on which there was a notebook and a stylet, partially hidden by a wide sheet that hung over them. She approached the table, saw the controls left by Thufir Hawat, and studied the message written on the pad:

_"TO LADY JESSICA: May this place give you as much pleasure as it has given me. Allow this room to remind you of a lesson we have learned from the same teachers: the proximity of a desirable thing tends toward indulgence. There the danger lurks. With my best wishes, LADY MARGOT FENRING."_

Jessica nodded, remembering that Leto had referred to the previous Emperor's envoy in Arrakis as Count Fenring. But the message contained in that note demanded all their attention, since the words had been chosen in such a way that they informed that the author was another Bene Gesserit. A bitter thought touched Jessica for a moment: The Count married his Lady.

And simultaneously, while she thought about it, she began looking for the hidden message. She had to be there. The visible note contained a key phrase that each Bene Gesserit, unless inhibited by a School Interdiction, she had to transmit to another Bene Gesserit when conditions required: _"There the danger lurks there."_ Jessica ran her fingertips over the pad, looking for key holes. Nothing. She inspected the edge with her fingers. Nothing. She left him where he had found him again, feeling a sense of urgency.

_'Something in the pad's position?'_

But Thufir had inspected the room, and no doubt he had moved the pad. She looked at the large sheet on top of the pad. The sheet! She ran her fingers along the bottom of its surface, following the edge, along the petiole. There was! His fingers detected the subtle points in code, reading the message as he ran through them:

_"Your son and the Duke are in immediate danger. A bedroom has been designed to attract your son. The H have filled him with deadly traps, so that all are discovered except one, which will escape all detections."_ Jessica fought the urge to run to Paul: she had to read the message until the end. His fingers quickly traced the points: _"I do not know the exact nature of the threat, but it has something to do with a bed. The threat to your Duke is the betrayal of a faithful companion or a lieutenant. The plan of the H plans to offer you the gift of one of his favorites. As far as I can tell, this botanical garden is safe. Sorry I can't tell you more. My sources are few, since my Count is not paid by H. Hurriedly, MF."_

Jessica dropped the sheet and turned to run to Paul. At that moment, the gate opened. Paul jumped in, carrying something in his right hand, and slammed the door behind him. What she called his attention was that his son was accompanied by a domestic cat.

"Paul!" Jessica took him by the shoulders, looking at the hand and the cat. "What is that, and what does a cat do here?"

"A hunter-seeker. The cat took it when it was suspended in the air; I grabbed it and I broke the tip, but I want to be very sure. The water will have to short-circuit it."

"Immerse it!"

He obeyed.

"Now release it. Leave it in the water and remove your hand."

Paul took out his hand, shook the water from it and looked at the inert metal in the fountain. Jessica cut a leaf and with that stem moved the killer needle.

I was dead.

She dropped her hand in the water and looked at Paul, then at the cat. His son examined the room, as did the cat, but his son's examination was something he knew ... the Bene Gesserit Way.

"Paul," Jessica spoke, calling her attention. "Tell me: where did that cat come from?"

"He came out under my bed, mother," explained his son. "I didn't know where he had come from, but Shadout Mapes told me he was the mascot of the second Judge of the Change sent by the Emperor"

"Ren Amamiya ..." Jessica murmured, tense with revelation. "The name of the Judge of the Change is Ren Amamiya. Paul, your father gave me the description of him, and with rope with the same appearance as what you saw in your dream" She turned her gaze to the cat. "The fur and the leash also agree with the pet of the dream. His name is Morgana"

"Morgana?" Paul said, framing, and staring at the cat. "Then it's your name, isn't it? What a beautiful name you have for a female"

The cat, Morgana gave a meow in thanks to the flattery.

"You're wrong, son," Jessica corrected. "Morgana is male"

"Ehh? What?!" Paul released, surprised. "Is the cat male?"

"In that also your father found out about the gender of the pet; he took it with enough humor, although it is the decision of the owner if he wanted to call it a by a different name. Perhaps it has a meaning when he gave it that name"

In Paul's mind, a number of ancient languages different from the imperial galactic language came to mind, and one of them said "born of the sea," or, "that which comes from the seashore." Something had to do with those words, but he decided to change the subject.

"The Shadout Mapes believes that there is a traitor among us. Morgana has just perceived that the hunter-seeker was hidden in the head of my bed; the operator must be hidden in any area inside the palace"

Jessica had to suppress the fear that made her shiver, remembering the words about the betrayal of a faithful companion or a lieutenant ... But who would it be?

There was a knock at the door, using the code of Thufir's men.

"Go ahead," Jessica called.

The door opened, and a tall man wearing the Atreides uniform with the Thufir Hawat badge on the cap entered the room.

"You are here, sir," said the man. "The housekeeper has told us that we will find him here" he looked around the room. "We found a burial mound in the basement and a man hiding in it. He had control of the device."

"I want to attend your interrogation," Jessica replied authoritatively.

"Sorry, my Lady, the man had killed himself when we found him"

"Is there nothing that can identify you?" Jessica asked, feeling frustrated at the loss of a good source of information in knowing who the mysterious traitor is.

"We still haven't found anything, my Lady"

"Was he a native of Arrakis?" Paul asked, joining the conversation, while the Morgana cat scratched lazily.

Jessica inclined her head approvingly at the skill of the question.

"He looked like a native," said the soldier. "They had put him in the mound more than a month ago, it seems, to wait for our arrival. The stones and mortar were intact yesterday, when we inspected the place. I put my reputation on it."

"Nobody doubts his meticulousness," said Jessica.

"No one, except myself, my Lady. We should have used sonic probes."

"I presume they are doing this right now," Paul added.

"Of course, sir"

"Let my father know that I will be late"

"Immediately, sir." The soldier looked at Jessica. "Hawat's orders are that under such circumstances the young master be kept in a safe place." His eyes scanned the room. "Is this place?"

"I'm right to know that this place is safe," Jessica said seriously. "Both Hawat and I thoroughly inspect it"

"Then I will stand guard outside, my Lady, until we have inspected the entire interior once more"

He leaned down, touched his cap in greeting to both of them, turned and closed the door behind him.

Paul broke the sudden silence.

"Wouldn't it be better to inspect the rooms ourselves later? Your eyes could catch things that others have ignored. Morgana could also help us."

"Paul," Jessica spoke sincerely with tangency. "We cannot incorporate the animal into our affairs. I know that domestic animals have a nose developed in detecting signatures and odors that humans cannot. It would be a risk that something would happen to him."

"But, mother," Paul replied. "Morgana just saved my life when he caught the hunter-seeker. We can use his help."

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea, Paul. We still don't know which side is the second Judge of the Change."

"But the cat saved my life"

"I know, Paul, I know," Jesscia said with a sigh. "I know they both made their appearances at the right time when we arrived in Arrakis, but I need to meet Ren Amamiya if he is on our side or against us"

Paul sighed, but he understood with a nod.

"... It's ok ... But what about the traitor? The note said it's ours"

"I can't be sure about that," she admitted with a nod.

"Anyway, I don't think it's Thufir. Maybe Yueh?"

"Not is neither a lieutenant nor a companion," she replied. "And I can assure you that he hates the Harkonnen as deep as we do." But Jessica did not forget the nervous gesture of her countenance when he inspected the maids with her narcotic detector; That would not let it happen.

Paul turned his attention to the mountains, thinking: _'And it can't be Gurney ... or Duncan. Maybe one of the second lieutenants? Impossible. They all belong to families that have been loyal to us for generations ... for excellent reasons.'_

Jessica ran a hand over her forehead, feeling her own fatigue._ 'There are so many dangers here!'_ She looked out towards the yellow landscape through the filters, studying it. Beyond the ducal grounds there was a plain that housed a warehouse of merchandise, surrounded by a high barrier: rows of spice silos protected by numerous watchtowers erected on long sustainers that gave them the appearance of huge spiders on the prowl. She could see at least twenty similar enclosures, full of silos, extending to almost the limits of the Shield Wall ... silos after silos, multiplying the entire width of the esplanade.

Slowly, the filtered sun sank behind the horizon. The stars began to shine. One of them, very low above the horizon, stands out from the others, blinked with a clear, precise rhythm: blink-blinkblink-blink-blink-blink ...

Paul moved to his side, in the shadows of the room. Morgana also witnessed that, with a watchful eye.

But Jessica concentrated on that unique luminous star, noting that it was too low, that it should shine on the very edge of the Shield Wall.

Someone was making signs!

She tried to decipher the message, but it was issued in a code she didn't know.

Other lights lit on the plain beneath the mountains: small yellow lights scattered in the dark blue. And another light to his left grew in intensity and began to glow, turning on and off quickly in the direction of the mountains ... very quickly: long flash, blink, flash!

And it became extinct. The false star also disappeared immediately.

_'Signs ...'_ Jessica felt invaded by a premonition.

_'Why are they using lights to make signals along the plain?'_ She asked herself internally. _'Why don't they use the normal communications network?'_

The answer was obvious: any communication could be intercepted by the agents of Duke Leto. The light signals meant that those messages had been exchanged between their enemies ... between Harkonnen agents.

They knocked on the door behind them, and heard the voice of Hawat's man.

"Everything is ready, sir ... my Lady. It is time to lead the young master to his father."

* * *

All had gathered in the spacious meeting room that Duke Leto Atreides had orchestrated under emergency measures on the events that had taken place in the residential residence of Arrakeen.

"My lord," Thufir Hawat introduced himself in a solemn and guilty voice, "I would like to submit my resignation to resign ..."

"Silence, Thufir!" Leto argued severely. "Stop behaving like this! Your mistake has been to underestimate the Harkonnen. Those simple tricks have used a simple trick."

Gurney, who was sitting in his chair with two officers next to his brown desk, grunted and posed a thoughtful attitude about how his friend and partner was making a miscalculation.

"Paul has survived by your training" continued Duke Leto. "In addition to that he was saved by the second Judge of the Change's mascot that had appeared at the right time in his room"

Everyone agreed with Leto's statement; the cat, Morgana, was in Paul's lap with a half-sleepy position, being indifferent to the praise of all the military personnel of the Atreides.

"Sit down," Duke Leto ordered, and Thufir followed the order, sitting in the last chair with a communications radio.

"Thufir" continued Duke Leto in a deep murmur, "there is a traitor. You have checked all of our surroundings. Check them again."

_'They have tried to kill my son'_

A very tiny but not blinding flash of light glimpsed on the radio screen.

"Sectors six to eighty, progress reports" Thufir replied, reading the report.

"Accept"

Thufir nodded; He took the small microphone with his right hand gently and spoke through it.

"Sector six to eighty, copy the sixth grade, the quadrant over the ninth grade plus eighty, four circles, link the eighties and call the fourth grade, copy." There was another flash of light until it went out. "Eight, Thufir Hawat, Mentat, Master of Assassins" He placed the microphone where he was, and turned his gaze to Duke Leto and everyone in the room. "The palace is safe now. Arrakeen is under martial law. We have quartered troops from subsoil six to ten. The other troops are at Arrakeen and at the airfield. The army is training but the shield protects us. With it, we are impenetrable. Dr. Liet Kynes and Ren Amamiya, the two Judges of Change, observed the withdrawal of the Harkonnen and our takeover. Dr. Kynes wants me to accompany him to inspect the extraction of the spice, just as Amamiya will also be second observer. Ah! And he comes here in search of his pet. He asks for permission to enter"

The murmurs rose among all the congregates in the room; If a Judge of the Change accepts the need to speak with those involved in a War of Assassins to assess the situation, then the order would have to be followed immediately as they are the representatives of Emperor Padishah and the Landsraad Council.

"Make it happen," Leto said, to which Thufir nodded and sent the message over the radio.

A minute later, footsteps were heard from the corridor, and an older teenager appeared on the scene with a straight height and firm shoulders. He wore a dark gray uniform with gold buttons and armor-style men. His face was youthful, with wavy black hair, and eyes that matched his uniform.

Paul was speechless, petrified, stunned ... unable to believe he was at his head was the real teenager he had seen in his dreams.

"Greetings" the guest was formally introduced. "I am Ren Amamiya, the second Judge of the Change of Emperor Padishah"

* * *

**See you in the next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here I bring you the continuation of this story.**

**All comments and criticisms are welcome.**

* * *

The appearance of Ren Amamiya as Judge of the Change drew a lot of attention from everyone in the room to see him as a simple young teenager who was old enough to enjoy his life as a university student and not be involved in a War of Assassins between two Noble Houses in dispute, but the rules were the rules. The Landsraad and Emperor Padishah Shaddam IV chose the boy as Judge of the Change according to their own investigations and observations, which should not be doubted and complained by the participants.

"I hope my cat didn't bother you in your affairs," Ren commented humorously.

"Of course it wasn't, Mr. Amamiya," Duke Leto told him. "Your pet has saved my son's life from a terrible situation"

"What?!" The young exasperated with surprise. "None of the two have suffered damage?"

"Not at all," Paul replied, standing up and walking towards him, holding the cat professionally. "He caught a hunter-seeker in my room when he came out under my bed; I am indebted to his pet. Here you are, sir."

"Thank you," Ren thanked him with a nod, holding his pet in his arms. "Morgana occasionally gets into trouble when I'm busy." He shrugged indifferently. "He is always that impulsive"

The cat let out a groan as a nuisance.

"In that I can understand it," Leto said, also rising, "but his impulsiveness to wander in undue places guaranteed that my son could destroy the artifact."

"... I understand," Ren nodded. "I guess Morgana's help was like a coincidence that she was in her room, young lord."

Paul laughed with minimal humor to stay straight and serious, and said:

"It was, but my training with my tutors helped me survive."

In the seats, Thufir and Gurney are proud of them.

"... I see," Ren nodded again. "So, you mean it's all over, isn't it? Since the entire city is folded by his soldiers, Duke Atreides."

"The Harkonnen have tried to use their dirty tricks to destroy us when we settled in the palace," Duke Leto said sincerely. "The attempt on Paul's room was only a planned ploy after we had eliminated some squadrons of soldiers left in the second wave of migration. I can assure you that all Arrakeen is under my jurisdiction right now by sending my soldiers in ensure security and peace inside. The Harkonnen will launch another surprise attack, and we will be prepared to repel it."

"A very bold move on your part, Duke Atreides," Ren said. "The Harkonnen did their thing in the tactics of using hidden traps and soldiers left as assailants, but you and your people managed to overcome that adversity. I see this as an advantage in your position as a good leader. Now, just touch see the economic production of the spice"

"We are in it," Duke Leto assured him. "All of us contribute ideas that the extraction of the spice is the important thing for the well-being of the economy of the Empire. We have compiled an inventory of all the agricultural products in the area machinery that is within reach so that the spice is exported. We will have to win this planet with the tip of the sword. Thufir, give us everything we know about what we have at our disposal"

"Of course, my lord," Thufir agreed and waved a young assistant with a dossier that opened on the table before him. "Half of the tractors are in working condition, and in just one third they have carry wings to be taken to the spice sands ... everyone who has left us the Harkonnen is about to crumble and get rid in pieces. We can call ourselves lucky if we get half of the equipment to work, and very lucky if a quarter of this half is still working within six months."

"Exactly we expect it," Duke Leto told him. "What is the final estimate about the basic equipment?"

Thufir consulted his dossier.

"Around nine hundred collection factories can be sent within a few days. Around six thousand two hundred and fifty ornithopters to monitor, explore and observe ... carry wings, a little less than a thousand"

"Wouldn't it be cheaper to reopen negotiations with the Guild and obtain permission to install an orbiting frigate that would serve as a meteorological satellite?" Gurney asked.

Leto observed that the young Judge of the Change raised an eyebrow at the analysis, and asked the Mentat again:

"Nothing good for this side, Thufir?"

"For now we must look for other solutions," said Thufir. "The Guild agent had no intention of negotiating with us. He simply made it clear, from Mentat in Mentat, that the price would always be above our means whatever the figure we were willing to disburse. Our task now is to discover the why before inventing a new approach"

The young Judge of Change posed an expression of understanding.

"... I see the problem you are going through," he said in a sincere and uniform voice. "You have a lot of pressure right now, Duke Atreides. I understand you a lot with all the effort that you and your colleagues are making to encourage the production of the spice in the midst of this crisis. But as Judge of the Change it is my duty to also catalog the flow of extraction in Arrakis. Planetologist Liet Kynes hopes to see tomorrow the inspection of how everything is going, including me"

There were murmurs of uncertainty among all, but Ren Amamiya maintained a state of indifference regardless of the bitterness of everyone in the room.

"I understand your work, Mr. Amamiya" Leto replied trying to keep calm. "I know that it is my responsibility to take responsibility for the fief that was given to me to guarantee the production of the melange spice; I assure you that there is always a solution to every problem. We are just discussing the equipment. Thufir, projects some examples to familiarize all with the machinery"

Thufir nodded, gesturing to an assistant next to the projector.

A solid three-dimensional image appeared on the surface of the table, approximately a third away. Some of the men sitting at the other end of the table rose to see better.

Paul leaned forward, watching the machine closely, as did the young Judge of the Change Ren Amamiya, still holding his pet in his arms, who also saw the projection.

According to the scale with respect to the human figures projected next to it, it would be about one hundred and twenty meters long and forty meters wide. It was basically a long insect-shaped central body that moved through several independent sections of caterpillars.

"It's a collecting factory," explained the Mentat Thufir Hawat. "We have chosen a well repaired for this projection. It is a type of machine that came here with the first team of imperial ecologists, and that is still in operation ... although I do not understand how or why"

"It's about what they call Old Mary, and it's for a museum," said one of the assistants. "I think the Harkonnen used it as punishment, a threat they kept on the head of their workers: behave well, or they will be sent to the Old Mary"

Laughter rang around the table.

Paul kept that show of humor away; His gaze was fixed on how the young Judge of the Change watched the machine with attention and interest, and you had to make the effort to focus the true situation on moving the humor away.

"Thufir, are there sandworms large enough to swallow all this?"

A sudden silence fell over the room. Duke Leto cursed internally, but saw the seriousness in his son's words with the presence of the second Judge of the Change.

"There are worms in the deep desert that could swallow all this factory in one bite," Thufir told him. "Even here, in the vicinity of the Shield Wall, where most of the spice is extracted, there are worms that could crush this factory and devour it in their spare time"

"Why don't they surround him with shields?" said Judg of the Change Ren Amamiya.

"According to the report of one of our men, Duncan Idaho" Thufir replied, "the shields are dangerous in the desert. Even a simple body would be enough to attract all the existing worms in hundreds of meters around. It seems that shields create a kind of homicidal is the reason why no extraction machine wears shields when it is time to be in the open air of the Harkonnen, on the other hand, certainly used a lot of shields are repair depots in all the towns of garrison, and in its accounting it indicates strong items of expenditure destined to spare parts for the shields"

"Is it possible that the Fremen possess a means of neutralizing the shields?" Paul asked.

"It seems unlikely," Thufir added. "Theoretically it is possible, of course ... a static counter-charge could supposedly short-circuit a shield, but no one has ever been able to make such a device a reality."

"We would have heard of him," Gurney replied. "The smugglers have always been in contact with the Fremen, and would have bought a panacea like this if it were available. And they would not have hesitated to traffic with it outside the planet."

"I do not like that questions of this importance remain unanswered," said Duke Leto seriously. "Thufir, I want you to devote absolute priority to solving the problem. I need to know how we will supervise the production."

"We are already working on it, my lord" cleared the Mentat. "Ah! Duncan said something interesting: he said that one could not deceive himself about Fremen's attitude towards shields. He said they seemed rather amused with them."

Ren tilted his head and Leto frowned at the deviation of the subject:

"The objective of this discussion is the equipment for the spice"

Thufir gestured at the projector man. The solid image of the collecting factory was replaced by the projection of a winged apparatus that turned the images of human figures around it into tiny letters.

"This is a carry wing," Thufir explained. "It is essentially a totem, whose only function is to transport a factory to the spice-rich sands, and rescue it when a sandworm appears. Some always appear. The collection of the spice is a process of running away and returning as soon as possible." Image was passed to that of an ornithopter. "These totepters are quite conventional. Their major modifications are in a very wide range of action. Space shields allow the essential parts to be sealed tightly against sand and dust. Only one in thirty is protected by a shield ... possibly the weight of the shield generator has been removed to extend the range of action"

"Would that mean that vehicle will allow us to see from a safe angle? What would be the benefit of this, Mr. Hawat?" asked the young Judge of the Change.

"After evaluating the condition of the equipment and the cost of repairs to make it operable, we have obtained a first estimate of operating costs. Naturally we have made a calculation above the real possibilities in order to leave a margin of safety" He closed his eyes in a demi-trance Mentat. "Under the Harkonnen, maintenance and wages amounted to fourteen percent. With reinvestments and development factors, including CHOAM percentage and military costs, our profit margin will be reduced to a meager six or seven per hundred, until we have replaced all the equipment out of use. Then we must be in a position to raise it up to twelve or fifteen percent which is normal" He opened his eyes. "Unless my lord wants to adopt the methods used by the Harkonnen"

"We are working to establish a solid and permanent planetary base," said the Duke. "We must make a large part of the population happy ... especially the Fremen"

"Very especially the Fremen," Thufir nodded.

"I can understand the dilemma," Ren Amamiya added to the conversation, "but I am sure that you will be able to get out of this. What I have heard with all the collected analyzes let me know that you are doing a hard job in boosting production in search of options. viable to move on. I leave you only to continue with your work"

The Duke thanked him for his visit to the room, and everyone in the room saw how the young Judge of the Change disappeared where he had entered.

* * *

Having arrived at his room through the accompaniment of guards as an escort for the kindness that Duke Leto Atreides did to him, Ren sat on the edge of the bed to rest his legs from the walk he had taken to familiarize himself with the surroundings of the residential home of the Atreides, while Morgana began to explain what happened to the Duke's eldest son.

"... attempted murder and secret signals"

"That's right," Morgana explained. "That's all I saw at this time when you told me to inspect the Atreides' residence, and I see that that place has very well hidden secret hiding places like in the Palaces"

Ren nodded at him; He asked him to hide in the palace without being seen when looking for any indication of a trap perpetrated by his enemies. After all, it was his plan he had devised in pretending to be a Judge of Change so that he could gain the trust of the Atreides. He had already done so with Thufir Hawat by presenting a cognitive document specifying his work as Landsraad and Emperor envoy.

The Mentat had believed him, approving him as a true field marshal who was on his round of imperial inspection on the development of events.

He asked him several questions about his dedication, and he had to answer him carefully, knowing that humans in this alternate timeline had developed their minds as computers due to their war against self-styled Thinking Machines for several years in the past, prohibiting any specific development of artificial intelligences that would endanger humanity, and resulting in the use of the mind.

The Mentat was studying him with his eyes, analyzing him analytically for any sign of lies, scrutinizing him, realizing that he was not a spy ... but in the end he got away with accepting his presence in the city.

There was already another Judge of Change that the Empire had appointed, and having another one was already something that would be considered very suspicious ... although coming from someone who went through various dangers, it was a piece of cake.

When he was notified that Morgana was in the meeting room where the Duke and his son were, Ren took advantage of it to go there and meet them in person, and it must be said that Duke Leto was someone with a very strong sense of duty. tall and responsible for his actions in caring for others, this being the patronizing model, as Toranosuke Yoshida was in participating in the Prime Minister elections in Shibuya after Shido's arrest for his fraudulent acts.

He also met Paul Atreides, the boy who was predestined to carry the destiny of humanity on his shoulders by accepting his true identity; Although he could describe him as a calm and innocent young boy who followed in his father's footsteps to succeed him ... the time would soon come when he would get to know him more deeply in a possible meeting that Duke Leto could hold.

Last was the situation where everyone was very concerned: the production of the melange spice.

Ren could detail the melange spice as a satire on oil that was only found in abundant reserves in the Middle East, especially in the Arab countries with the greatest abundance in oil reserves and mineral resources in hidden deposits.

The Empire and its council of nobles would come to represent the developed countries that are interested in having them, while Arrakis and its inhabitants would be the insurgents who do not agree that foreigners stole their resources, which led to interrelated conflicts, such is the case of Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, among others ... oil was the biggest source of income in which everything moved, and without oil, there were no livelihoods for import and export vehicles.

Melange was the counterpart to oil, and this narcotic allowed the development of the mind at an accelerated rate that expanded the senses of perception, the strengthening of levels of health in life expectancy, among many extraordinary factors that the spice melange It could help, such is the example of space flight without the use of intelligent computers to guide oneself electronically, but mentally, with the use of narcotics as a new modality.

Melage changes everything ... melange is the treasure that holds the Empire together for years, perhaps millennia if it continued to occur.

The melange spice was the key point at which it could be used to control or destroy the entire economy and the Empire itself, assuming they needed an administrator to oversee production, a benevolent ruler who was able to win the trust of the locals and thus avoiding a revolt that would cause the end of power, and for this they had asked Duke Leto Atreides to be that subject that the Empire needed to keep everything under control ... although it would only take a few minutes to know that his enemies wanted to see him dead. And he would make sure that Duke Atreides and his family are safe.

"... You did a good job protecting the Duke's son" Ren said after a second. "You deserve to rest"

Morgana yawned in response as she stretched.

"... You have no idea how much I have covered the entire interior of the palace" the cat spoke tiredly in his voice. "It has several corridors that connect to many rooms, most of them are rooms and comfort rooms where the military guard began to unpack. Surveillance must be increased after the boy's almost murder"

"... It is," Ren said with a nod. "Duke Atreides was very upset when I saw him, he makes a greater effort to keep things under control in the midst of this game of murder between nobles ... not to mention that he must start the production of the spice with the factory"

"I was watching that" the cat replied, looking him in the eye. "Is it true that you're going to supervise him?"

"... I will only see how the extraction of the spice is with the use of the machines, so I can be close to the Duke and his son to protect them while I play my role as Judge of the Change" Ren confirmed. "Rest well"

Morgana purred when Ren stroked the back of her neck as she let go of sleep and the caresses of her caretaker.

Tomorrow would be another day when he had to be alert to the events that were going to happen.

* * *

"I must say I am surprised that there is another second Judge of the Change ... especially coming from someone young, boy," said imperial planetologist Liet Kynes, giving his new coworker a curious and interesting look.

"... It is because of my qualifications that Landsraad and Emperor Padishah have called me to fill the position, Dr. Kynes" replied the boy, Ren Amamiya as he was called when he presented himself. "They saw that a young man like me should learn from imperial politics in the open field, including when it was a confrontation between Noble Houses"

"Hmmm ... I understand, I understand very well" Kynes agreed. "Imperial policy is something very complex when it comes to entering it. It is complicated, but you manage to understand it a little as everything happens. You will get used to it over time"

"... I know what you say, doctor" the boy had said with refined manners. "At school we have seen it as something that is very delicate and must be handled with total professionalism. It is complicated as you said, but you learn very slowly until you understand it perfectly"

"Very interesting deduction, boy." Kynes knew that the future of society lay with the new generation of young people who would erect a new society through good education and advanced learning to build the foundations of a great civilization, and that was what that he always taught his daughter; the language, the culture, the understanding of being a Fremen in the midst of uncertainties and corruption among the nobles and politicians who plagued the Empire as parasites that feed on what they see.

The two were outside the administrative building at the Arrakeen Landing Ground. An unmarked ornithopter was hovering close to there, buzzing faintly, ready to fly like a sleepy bird. An Atreides guard stood beside them both, sword drawn, surrounded by the slight distortion of air produced by the shield he carried.

According to the prophecy, he did not specify whether the Mother Goddess would come with the Messiah or introduce him to a scene when the time would come. But it was strange that correspondence between people and prophecy.

Kynes smiled furtively, and thought: _'There Arrakis has a huge surprise for you! I hope my partner is not surprised'_

The planetologist raised a hand, signaling his Fremen guards to stay away. He and Amamiya continued to stride toward the entrance to the building; a dark hole in the plastic-lined rock. _'That monolithic building was so vulnerable'_ he thought. _'Much more defenseless than a cave'_

A movement at the entrance attracted the attention of both of them. Kynes stopped, taking the opportunity to adjust his clothes and the fixation on his left shoulder of his stillsuit.

"Do you have it perfectly adjusted?" he asked his young companion.

"... It's completely tight when I put it on, Doctor Kynes" the boy said. "I have checked it several times when coming"

"Very well ..." Kynes nodded.

The front doors opened wide. Atreides guards emerged quickly, all well armed: slow-discharge stunners, swords, and shields. Behind them appeared Duke Leto and his heir, both wearing stillsuits and jubba capes with the House emblem embroidered on their chests.

The words of the prophecy echoed in Kynes's mind: _'The Mahdi will know things that others do not know how to see.'_ Then he shook his head, saying to himself that they are only men.

Next to the two of them, also dressed for the desert, was someone else that Kynes recognized: Gurney Halleck, who had instructed him on how to behave with the Duke and his son.

_'They will soon learn who is the true owner of Arrakis'_ he thought with narcissism, proud to know the mysteries that Arrakis hid.

In addition to the inspection, it was obvious that they had been informed by Duncan Idaho.

_'I will order Stilgar to send Idaho's head to the Duke,'_ Kynes said to himself with a cold, deceptive air.

The ducal group was already a few steps from the two, their boots crunching the sand on the ground.

Both judges bowed their heads.

"My lord Duke" Kynes said first.

The Duke looked at them both

"Good to see you again, Amamiya" Leto turned his gaze to Kynes. "Are you the ecologist?"

"Here we prefer the old title, my lord," he replied moderately. "Planetologist"

"As you prefer" the Duke looked at his son. "Paul, this is the first Judge of the Change, the arbitrator of disputes. Like Amamiya, he has the mission of ensuring that all the formalities in our inauguration of this fief are completed" He turned his gaze to the imperial planetologist . "This is my son"

"Are you a Fremen?" Paul asked curiously.

Kynes smiled with conviction. stared at him, studying the man's water-rich meat, not caring about his companion's presence. He spoke coldly:

"Never talk about probabilities in Arrakis. Talk about possibilities"

Ren raised an eyebrow, and Gurney tensed.

"Address the Duke as my lord!"

Ren felt the atmosphere grow heavy, but Duke Leto Atreides calmed the situation with a personal gesture to Gurney to shut up.

"We are foreigners here, Gurney" he said calmly. "We must make concessions"

"As you wish, my lord"

"These suits and your consideration of safety will not be forgotten."

"_'__The gift is the blessing who makes it,' _" Paul quoted, looking like a wise proverb when Ren analyzed it, and saw that the Fremen Kynes had left in the shadow of the administrative building stood up and muttered excitedly. One of them said out loud:

"Lisan al-Gaib!"

Kynes turned abruptly and made an imperative wave of his hand, a sign that Ren spotted when the Fremen took refuge in the shade again.

"Many of the desert natives are superstitious. Pay no attention to them. They do not want them any harm" But he thought of the words of the legend: _'They will welcome you with the Holy Words and your gifts will be a blessing'_

What Ren could say about the planetologist's attitude, based on what he just saw, was that of a man proud of his own ethnicity and superiority. His eyes were deep blue without any whiteness, a typical trait among the inhabitants of the desert planet. Kynes had come with a Fremen escort, which could simply mean that he was testing them ... although the escort seemed more like an honor guard. And by their ways. Kynes seemed a proud man, accustomed to freedom, with his language and manners subject only by his own suspicions.

Ren decided to intrude on the conversation before there was an incident.

"... Doctor Kynes, I think we should start the inspection. Remember we have work to do."

"True, very true" Kynes stated.

Leto was also convinced with a nod.

"I will pilot. You can sit next to me to guide me. Gurney, Amamiya and Paul will be placed in the back seats"

"Wait a minute, please," intervened the planetologist. "With your permission, my lord, I must control the safety of the suits"

The Duke wanted to say something, but Kynes insisted:

"I care about my skin as much as yours ... my lord. I know perfectly well what throat would be cut if something happened to you while you are in my care"

Ren noted that the Duke was frowning, reluctant and suspicious that the planetologist might betray him, but he accepted it at the last minute with a nod.

"We are in your hands" said the Duke. He stepped forward and opened his clothes, seeing Halleck rising on the balls of his feet, motionless and attentive, though apparently calm. "And, if you are so kind," he continued, "I will thank you for an explanation about those clothes of someone who lives so intimately with her."

"Certainly," said Kynes; he reached under his clothing to check the shoulder bindings, speaking as he examined the ensemble. "Basically it's a multi-layered fabric ... a highly efficient filter and a heat exchange system." He adjusted the shoulder bindings. "The layer in contact with the skin is porous. Perspiration passes through, cooling the body ... a normal process of evaporation. The other two layers ..." Kynes squeezed the pectoral "... contain filaments of exchange of heat and precipitation of salt. The salt is thus recovered. "

He invited the Duke to raise his arms with a gesture, and he said:

"Very interesting."

Ren agreed with Leto; the explanation on how the people of Arrakis survived the extreme heat and the dying desert through the suits was fascinating and at the same time rare, but it helped to keep the human body hydrated to live. After all, it was in the future, and in the future everything is possible. The stillsuit was an invention that scientists on Earth would take years to create.

"Take a deep breath," Kynes said. The Duke obeyed. Kynes studied the armpit fixings, adjusting one.

"Body movements, especially breathing," he said, "and some osmotic action provide the body with enough energy for pumping." Slightly lengthened the pectoral. "The recovered water circulates and ends up going to the recovery pockets, from where one can suck it through this tube attached to the side of your neck."

The Duke cocked his head to see the end of the tube.

"Simple and efficient. Good construction"

Kynes knelt down to examine the leg bindings.

"Urine and feces are processed in the lining of the thighs," said the imperial planetologist, rising, reaching out to fix the neck and lifting a square section. "In the desert you should wear this filter on your face and these tampons attached to these tubes in your nose. You breathe in through the filter, through your mouth, and breathe out through your nose. In a Fremen suit in good condition, you will not lose more than a thimble of humidity a day ... although if you get lost in the Great Erg"

"A thimble per day"

Kynes pressed a finger against the part of the clothing that covered the forehead, and said:

"Here the rubbing is likely to produce irritation. In this case tell me and I will tighten a little more"

"Thank you," Duke Leto thanked him, shaking his shoulders as Kynes backed away, feeling comfortable, noticing that the suit fit him better and irritated him less.

Kynes turned to Paul.

"Now let's repeat with you, young" The planetologist proceeded to do his job, but he got up and backed away with a puzzled expression.

"Have you ever worn a stillsuit before?"

"This is the first time"

"So has anyone tweaked it?"

"No"

"Is something wrong, Doctor Kynes?" Ren intervened, intrigued by the planetologist's puzzled expression.

"Well ..." Kynes hesitated, stammering, "... is that the young heir seems to have figured out how to put the sitillsuit in perfect condition. Who taught you?"

"This ... I thought it was the good way to put it on"

"Well, it really is" Kynes replied, keeping his chin up, thinking about the words of the legend: _'He will know his customs as if he had been born as one of us'_

"We are wasting time" Duke Leto became impatient, gesturing for them to accompany him inside the air vehicle. They got on board and fastened their seat belts in their respective seats. The vehicle screeched as it activated.

Ren was sitting on the left side of the back seat where Gurney was in the center while Paul was on the right side. He watched as Kynes adjusted his seat belt in the front passenger seat in front of a luxurious comforting cabin: soft greenish-gray upholstery, a soft seat, bright instruments, the feeling of cool air filtered as the doors and fans closed. started up.

What comfort! That was Ren's expression as he became fascinated in his new environment; a futuristic aircraft.

And that he had seen one, but Necronomicon was only based on the many sightings of Ovinis that had been confirmed on Earth over the years as the representation of Futaba's electronic ommiscience upon awakening him in the Palace ... but this was real. .. a true dream of every science fiction fan would be excited to be something futuristic in innovative on the alternate line where he was.

Ren watched as the wings rose once, twice ... After ten meters of flight, they flew again, with the wings quivering slightly and the subsequent jets lifting them through the air with a soft whistle.

"To the southeast, above the Shield Wall," Kynes pointed out. "That's where I told your arena master to focus his team."

"Agree"

Duke Atreides raised the aircraft until it was surrounded on all sides by air cover from the other thopters, which were immediately placed in formation.

Ren looked down to the left at the broken landscape of the Shield Wall: maelstrom of tortured rocks, yellow and brown spots marked by black cracks. It was as if someone had launched that immense massif from space, to leave it united there for eternity.

They crossed a shallow depression, where long tentacles of gray sand gliding from a canyon open to the south. Fingers of sand seemed to run toward the depression ... like a dry delta that stood out against the dark rock bottom.

Definitely what he saw was a hundred times more realistic than the Futaba Palace as it was the reflection of a dry and empty heart, like rocks and sands.

"When you present your reports on the change of government to the Emperor, will you think of telling him that we have observed the rules?" Duke Leto asked, glancing at the two imperial referees, as he continued on course.

"... The Harkonnen are gone, you have come" Kynes said simply.

"... The seizure of power before the Harkonnen withdrawal is a great advantage to you, Duke Atreides" Ren added a respectful tone.

"And has everything been done as it should have been done?" The Duke's response was direct and serious.

A momentary tension drew into a muscle along Kynes's jaw.

"We, as Judges of the Change, depend directly on the notes of the Empire ... my lord"

Leto's smile was joyless.

"But we know the reality ..."

"I must remember that His Majesty finances my work"

"Really? And what is your job?"

In the brief silence that followed, Ren saw Duke Leto push Kynes very fast ... trying to get him to release information, something he was detailing but the planetologist kept an air of secrecy. It could be assumed that Kynes kept a secret regarding the finances that the Emperor Padishah made to him, and he remembered how the Fremen guards escorted him as someone important. A chief of tribute, that was what could be considered him; the representative of all the Fremen that make up Arrakis.

Gurney was contemplating the desolate landscape, oblivious to his lord's conversation, but very attentive in case the planetologist went too far, he could see it in his posture. Paul paid attention to what was happening with an attentive and analytical gaze, the typical trait of a hawk who was aware of everything, a trait inherited from his conception as a superhuman, although despite being fifteen years old.

"... My job as a planetologist, of course," Kynes said after a few seconds. "It mainly consists of dryland biology and botany ... a little geology, crust drilling, and some experiments. One can never exhaust the possibilities of an entire planet."

Ren understood the job Kynes was very busy with; the possibility that there is some biological zone with natural plants was very little in which they could develop; the extreme temperatures and the land in the absence of water were difficult for this world to become a vast tropical zone for the community of its inhabitants. Australia and Africa were continents where the desert and tropical climates were on par with Arrakis which was a planet of pure sand and rock ... although there was the spice as a possible factor that the vegetation could develop.

Ren looked out of his window. Beneath them, the rugged wall plunged, terracing down to a plain of bare rock topped by a steely ledge. Beyond the edge, the nail-like crescent dunes lined the horizon, with dark spots here and there in the distance, pointing to something that wasn't sand. Rocky blooms, ta. In that suffocating air, he would not have dared to assure it.

"Are there plants down there?"

"Some" Kynes replied. "At this length, life is primarily represented by what we call little water thieves ... plants that prey on each other's moisture, absorbing even the smallest trace of dew. Some areas of the desert boil with life. But all of these creatures have learned to survive the rigors of the desert. If you were abandoned down there, you would have to imitate these forms of life or die"

"You mean to steal the water from others?" Paul asked, joining the conversation after being silent for a few minutes without saying anything.

"That's right," Kynes had said, "but it wasn't exactly the meaning of my words. Look, my climate demands a special length towards the water. You always think of water, at any time. Nobody wastes anything that contains a little moisture"

Referring to "its climate", Kynes was flaunting his authority on how Arrakis' climate is consisted of lack of water as an important resource. Water has always been in the history of humanity an important resource that not only helps hydrate the body, but also helps keep it mobile like a fossil fuel that needed to be fed.

Water was the giver of life ... water was the fountain of youth ... water was the greatest treasure one can have.

Water in this world was valuable to its inhabitants.

"Turn two degrees south, my lord," Kynes pointed out. "There is a storm advancing towards the West"

The Duke nodded. He had seen in the distance the whirlwind of orange sand. He turned the thopter around, and watched the orange reflection of the dust on the wings of the escort apparatuses that mimicked his maneuver.

"This should allow us to avoid the sandstorm"

"Flying in the middle of this sandstorm is dangerous" Paul replied grimacing. "Can it really attack the hardest metals?"

"At this point it is not the sand, but the dust," said the planetologist. "The main dangers are the lack of visibility, the turbulence and the suction valves, which are blocked"

"Do you think we will attend the extraction analysis in time, Dr. Kynes?" Ren asked, wanting to know if the transport would get them in time, in case he had to summon a Persona as an emergency measure.

"Most likely," Kynes stated, shrugging his shoulders.

Ren took an extended position in his seat while letting out a small moan. The planetologist's tone and attitude discouraged that he had more experience knowing the terrain of Arrakis with enough familiarity to being a native and a chief of his town, despite the fact that neither the Duke nor his son noticed it. He was rough and rough, just as Sojiro had been on his arrival at Leblanc when he was considered a criminal due to his criminal record.

That was the attitude of someone who is not willing to disclose important information to foreigners, especially those who are belonging to the Empire who come and extract resources as invaders, generating discontent towards them, and that he could understand.

He rambled a bit in Kynes's attire, and noticed a wrinkle on the left sleeve of her dress, revealing the presence of a knife in a sheath on her arm. His waist was curiously swollen, and it could be said that the planetologist always carried a weapon or some object in case he had to use it in an assault as a method of self-defense, an act that all the tribes of Earth did in the past. A copper needle engraved with the image of a hare closed Kynes's dress at the neck. Another smaller needle but bearing the same pattern was visible on the edge of the hood draped over his shoulders.

The ornithopter hovered over a completely bare rocky plain. Ren looked down through two thousand meters of altitude, watching the broken shadows of the vehicle and its escort slide down below. Beneath them, the ground seemed level, but the unevenness of the shadows revealed otherwise.

"Has anyone ever managed to get out of the desert on their own?" asked the Duke, breaking the silence that filled the cabin.

"Never from the deep desert" Kynes assured. "There have been men who have managed to get out of the secondary zone a few times. They have survived by going through the rocky areas, where the worms do not usually go."

The mention of the creatures that made up the planet's biodiversity brought Ren into the conversation:

"... Is there any chance that we will see one?"

"Maybe you can see it today" Kynes said to him. "Where there is spice, there are worms"

"Always?" Gurney asked.

"Always"

"Is there a relationship between the spice and the worms?" commented the Duke, curious.

Kynes turned, and Ren watched him frown.

"They defend the sand from the spice. Each worm has a ... territory. As for the spice ... who knows? The worm specimens we have examined lead us to suspect that there are complicated chemical reactions within them. We have found traces of hydrochloric acid in its ducts, and even more complicated forms of acids elsewhere. I will provide you with a monograph on this"

The Duke was going to ask about the use of shields as a defense, but Gurney undermined him by pointing towards the horizon.

"A cloud of dust ahead, my lord"

Ren rose in his seat, as did Paul and his protector Gurney Halleck. He observed a yellowish cloud whirling over the surface of the desert, some thirty kilometers ahead.

"Yes, that is what we are looking for" said the planetologist. "It's on the ground, which works on the spice. The cloud is sand that is expelled after being spun to extract the spice. There is no cloud that resembles this. Do you see the trackers? They look for hints of worms. Waves of sand and shallow seismic probes. Worms go unnoticed at great depth. Moving towards the tractor, the worm creates a ripple in the sand. But sometimes it moves, so that the ripple is invisible, and so the trackers go equipped with trackers also with seismic probes "Kynes scanned the sky. "There should be a hauling wing around there, but I don't see it."

"The worm always ends up coming, right?" Gurney asked.

"Always" the planetologist affirmed with a nod.

Paul leaned down, touching her shoulder.

"How much territory does each worm usually cover?"

Kynes furrowed her eyebrows; the boy asked a question that only an adult would answer.

"Depends on the size of the worm"

"In what proportion?" Ren asked.

"The largest can control up to three hundred, four hundred square kilometers. The smallest ..." his response was interrupted as the Duke abruptly switched on the brake jets. The apparatus pranced, the tail jets faded, the wings stretched to the maximum and began to beat the air. The apparatus became a true thopter while the Duke pinned it in midair, keeping the flapping of wings to a minimum and pointing a point with his left hand, beyond the tractor, heading east.

"Is it the sign of a worm?"

Kynes leaned in front of the Duke to peer into the distance. Ren, Paul and Gurney gathered closer, looking in the same direction, and Ren noticed that the escort ship, caught by surprise by the fuck maneuver, had moved on and was now making a wide turn to return to its side. The factory tractor was ahead of them, still some three kilometers distant.

Wherever the Duke pointed out, among the half-moons of the dunes that were lost on the horizon, a kind of mound moved that formed a straight line that was lost in the distance. It reminded Ren of the trail left by a huge fish as it skims across the surface of the water.

"A worm" Kynes blurted, startled. "One of the greats" He turned, took the mike from the control panel, switched on a new frequency, consulted the sliding map held between two scrolls over their heads, and spoke into the microphone: "Calling the Delta Ajax Nine extractor, hint worm. Please answer "

The loudspeaker made a click, and a voice spoke:

_"Who is calling Delta Ajax Nine?"_

"Don't mention the Duke," said Gurney. "It is not a scrambled channel"

Kynes nodded, and continued to do his work:

"Unregistered flight to your northeast. Worm in intersection route. Estimated contact in fifteen minutes"

_"Presence confirmed"_ replied the driver of the extractor. _"Waiting for contact in sixteen minutes. A precise calculation. Who is on that flight?"_

Kynes did not respond when she hesitated to respond.

"What will happen?" Duke Leto demanded.

"The shuttle will lift the extractor. Come closer to the vehicle, you will find it interesting, my lord"

The Duke dominated the controls tightly as they entered the exhaust turbulence zone.

Ren looked down, seeing the sand that was still being expelled by that metal and plastic monster at his feet. It had the appearance of a huge blue and brown beetle whose multiple legs mechanically flapped around it. He saw a gigantic trunk at the front, sinking into the dark sand.

He was to say that the futuristic vehicle was an excellent innovation, somewhat advanced to mining vehicles on Earth.

"A terrain rich in spice, judging by the color," Kynes commented. "They will continue working until the last minute"

Ren observed the Duke increase the movement of the wings, tightening them to make the apparatus turn and stabilize it at low altitude in concentric circles around the extractor. The escort turned on them, maintaining their positions.

Ren studied the yellowish cloud that was belched from the holes in the exhaust fan, and looked out into the desert, where the worm signals were approaching.

Through the radio, the occupants listened as a recount of the situation was listed, knowing that they did not see the ships that were a few meters in the air without being seen:

_"Tracker one: negative. Change."_

_"Tracker two: negative. Change."_

_"Tracker three: negative. Change."_

Cursing at the tension he was facing, the Duke pressed the contact and spoke into the microphone.

"Let's get them out of the extractor" his tone was decisive and firm. "Obey"

_"Who orders it?"_ the operator demanded over the frequency.

"The Duke Leto Atreides"

_"Yes, sir,"_ replied the operator, clear and confident.

"How many?"

_"Twenty-six in all. We can't leave the spice"_

"To hell with the spice!" shouted the Duke. "Get out of there!"

The ships descended on the sandy surface like birds that went down to rest on the ground. The door opened, and the Duke issued the order that the workers would be in each ornithopter a group of four to make the flight faster.

Ren made room for two workers to settle after climbing inside in the middle of the flight. He caught the smell of fear, and saw that they were wearing the partially open stillsuit around their necks. He made a mental note that they were carrying him like this because of the arduous work that was to extract the spice in an arid area covered by sand dunes, under the unforgiving light of the solar rays that increased the high hot temperatures.

In his nostrils, he could make out the cinnamon smell emanating from the two workers; It was refreshing and sweet, like that of a caramel perfectly structured in sugar. This was the spice, the melange, the predominant fuel that ruled the power of the Empire.

The last man got on board, and gasped:

"The worm! It's almost upon us! Let's take off!"

The Duke verified that the last of the escort apparatuses had taken off. He regulated the ascent, took a last look at the wings and instruments, and pressed the jet control.

Ren watched Duke Leto maneuver the apparatus along a wide upward curve, up to the vertical of the extractor.

Crushed against a corner of the window, Ren looked down at the silent machine on the sand. The worm's signal had been interrupted a few hundred meters from the exhaust. And now a certain turbulence was beginning to appear in the sand around the machine.

"The worm is down now" Kynes explained in a lecturer's tone. "They are going to see a show that few have seen"

Dust spots now shadowed the sand around the extractor. The huge machine began to sink, leaning to the right. A gigantic vortex of sand began to form on the side of the extractor. It spun faster and faster. Sand and dust rose through the air hundreds of meters to everything around him.

Then they saw it.

"Blessed be the creator and his water," Kynes recited in religious fervor, praising the mighty beast from the depths of the arena. "His coming and departure. May his passage purify the world"

At first one thought the planetologist was crazy for chanting a religious prayer, but seeing what everyone was seeing from the window was a magnificent and fascinating work, an extraordinary event of nature.

Wide, rough and thick fauses with rows of sharp teeth emerged from a majestic and divine form of the mantle of sand. The gigantic worm lifted half a meter, and with a titanic pressure from its triangle-shaped jaws, the puller was shattered.

The worm, having devoured its food, returned to the interior of the ground, leaving a huge hole covered for a large amount of sand.

Everyone in the cabin was stunned and amazed, watching in silence as the gigantic creature had destroyed the vehicle, as if it were a cookie.

"For God's sake, he's a monster," Gurney exclaimed in shock.

Ren agreed with the Atreides' bodyguard; It was huge and monstrous ... an animal that made its existence shine in front of mortals after searching for its food. The creature escaped all logic by its extraordinary appearance, taken from fantasy tales where its Personages were the abstract concepts that the human mind imagined such beings to imagine and believe to be real.

Igor had warned him of those creatures he made up on the planet in addition to humans, but he had never seen one in the flesh before his eyes before. It was majestic and fascinating ... the splendid definition of the animals as they went through an evolutionary process that allowed them to adapt to the environment they were in, very different from their relatives that haunted the fertile lands of Earth.

Facing the Shadows in Mementos was a big challenge, but with a wild animal that was as wide as a ship it was a real challenge, especially when found in the desert.

"The damage will be paid," Duke Leto had said, coming out of his stupor. "I promise I will get a new one"

The honesty and determination that the Duke dismissed was the model of a ruler who cared for his people, a leader who guaranteed the safety of his followers; the value he had given to save the workers of the vehicle without caring about the valuable cargo that was the spice had been a great risk, but the life of the workers was the most important thing that melange herself when giving the order that each one go up to the ships so they could escape.

The Duke had saved them, and they were to be glad and grateful that their lives are in the underworld and not being digested in the worm's stomach acid.

That was the show of solidarity and altruism of a person with good moral concepts of a noble doing for the good of his citizens, which could guarantee the loyalty of those he saved, a loyalty and admiration of the people that all would place their trust in him.

Both Ren and Kynes agreed in their own individual thoughts that Duke Leto Atreides was a person who inspired great admiration and great deep respect for his morals and actions of helping others; an individual who took the risks and took responsibility for his decisions ... a person who deserved to be protected from his enemies, and only Ren Amamiya, leader of the Phantom Thieves of Heart, would be in charge of protecting him at all costs.

* * *

After the fateful incident in which everyone was safe and sound, Ren had been invited to the dinner that Duke Leto had formed to meet all city officials, even giving him permission that he could bring Morgana to the meeting as a honorable gesture of saving your child's life. Ren agreed to go with his feline companion to the palace, being escorted by two guards that the Duke had commissioned to accompany him as guides. For the evening party, Ren had put on a dark coat with diamond decorations, gold shoulder pads, and gold chains ... a perfect outfit taken from the Metaverse with the use of mind and perfection.

Having entered the interior of the Atreides' residential palace, Ren was led into the great meeting hall. he glanced at the guests in the room, all dressed in flamboyant and elegant outfits that both men and women wore. Most of the women in the room seemed to belong to a very specific type: decorative, perfect down to the smallest detail, a strange mixture of untouchable virtue and sensuality. Ann would fit in if she was with him.

Being in a formal meeting with elegant people made him remember the Shido Palace in the shape of a cruise ship and the National Diet Building being like the venue of the party where the representatives of the Shido circle were the mere representations of his psyche; The same was also true of the Sae Niijima Palace in the form of a casino. But this was real; I was attending a real gathering of important people representing the city and the Empire.

Paul had approached him after leaving a group of girls with whom he spoke; He greeted him and welcomed him into his home, telling him about the vastness of the room and the rooms that made it up. The ducal heir pointed out to each guest his own role, especially the representative of the Guild Bank, the water transporter and a smuggler ... those three individuals represented a great challenge for the Duke in dealing with those who have more power over the royalty. He also introduced him to his mother, Lady Jessica, a beautiful woman wearing a long gown that glowed in the color of fireplace fire and wore an earth-colored ribbon knotted around her bronze hair.

Kynes was among the guests for his position as Judge of the Change; He wore an old-style dark brown uniform with imperial service epaulets and a tiny drop of gold indicating his rank on the neck. He had gestured with his head at the sight of him, and Ren had returned it to him, as every co-worker did.

The Duke had made an appearance in the room in a dark green military-style uniformed outfit that gave the appearance of a commander. He motioned for everyone to follow him into the dining room; after everyone occupied their respective chairs (Morgana was placed on the floor with her own bowl full of food), the Duke raised the glass, proposing a speech:

"Some of you have frowned upon the fact that it has changed the customs of the water bowls. It is my way of telling you that many things are going to change here"

The changes that the Duke spoke about were the use of the basins where the water was served and washed and then reused as payment currency, that was what Ren had seen when listening to his discussion with Lingar Bewt, the water carrier The latter complained about the change that Paul's father was making.

Water meant power on the planet. For example; if all the water sources were destroyed at a signal, a collective hysteria would arise that would cause an intense demonstration on all sides of the planet, everyone would cry out for the misfortune and put the production of the spice at risk ... the fault he would fall on top of Duke Leto as the person in charge of not ruling the fief assigned to him, a plan devised by the Harkonnen to come to the fore for controlling the distribution of water as a dirty move, just as Shido did in his campaigns.

The Duke had deposited his goblet and grabbed a pitcher of water, lifting it into the air, being bordered by the light from the suspensors.

"As a gentlemen of the Empire, I want to propose a toast"

Ren watched by the cold expression that adorned him on the face of the Duke was in an act of appeal that all the guests of maximum authority take into account his presence, the presence of a hawk that was not dominated by sparrows and scavengers.

"Here I am, and here I will stay!"

No one drank from their jugs when they saw that the Duke kept his suspended in the air.

"My toast will be one of the most beloved maxims to your hearts: Business is what makes progress! Fortune passes everywhere!"

He had drunk of his water and asked Gurney Halleck to play a song with his basilet while the servants served dinner at the table: roasted desert hare with sauced sauce, Sirian plumbing, frozen chukka, coffee with the melange spice that invaded the room with its cinnamon smell, and a duck with the kettle served with sparkling wine. Morgana was prepared with curries decorated with dressings and well-cooked rice, a delicacy served to the hero for saving the life of the ducal heir.

"In the old days it was the duty of a host to distract guests according to their talent." The Duke stood without sitting, a sign that the toast was still in full swing. His knuckles were so white from the force with which he held the jar. "I can't sing, but I'm going to recite the words from Gurney's song. Consider it another toast ... a toast to all those who have died to lead us here."

Everyone felt uncomfortable in the room because of the cynical attitude that the Duke gave for the toast, not to mention that with his rested song he made the atmosphere even more uncomfortable, although a little comical from Ren's point of view when he sang:

_"In magazine, friends ... soldiers you have not reviewed for so long. Your luggage is made of pain and dollars. Their spirits weigh on your silver necklaces. In magazine, friends ... soldiers you have not had in a long time. past review. To each his time, without unfair pretensions or deceit. With them passes the mirage of fortune. In magazine, friends ... soldiers that you have not reviewed for a long time. When your time ends with his last grimace , let pass the mirage of fortune "_

He must have said that the Duke sang wonderfully as he followed the rhythm of the stanza, but there was something in his tone that made him stand out, a tone of melancholy, a tone full of uncertainty and gloom ... as if he had suffered a enormous loss, and Ren understood from the dialect in his face that it was the extractor that was torn to pieces by the worm. That vehicle was what little was left in inventory.

Ren drank from his drink as did those who were gathered in an embarrassing silence and tense from the evening they were going through. Morgana had murmured to him that the Duke was a little out of his mind, to which he agreed that he had gone mad for just a moment due to the stress he suffered from the intense load he carried.

He had observed that the Duke had served himself again, but instead of bringing it to his mouth, he spilled half of its contents on the floor, knowing that everything would follow his example; to which Ren and the rest of the guests did so with hesitation.

This was clean, drinking water, not a soggy towel. The reluctance to throw her was described in the trembling of the guests' hands, in their belated reactions, in nervous giggles ... and in violent but necessary obedience. Ren saw a woman drop her mug to the floor, and she turned to the other side when her male partner picked it up.

Kynes, however, was the one who most attracted his attention. The planetologist hesitated, then emptied his mug into a concealed container under his jacket. He smiled at Paul's mother when he realized that she was looking at him, and raised the empty jug towards her, in a silent toast. He didn't seem at all haunted by his action, just as Ren did the same to indicate that he was following suit.

Gurney's music was still floating around the room, but not in a minor key, but hot and cheerful, as if the troubadour were trying to lift their spirits.

"Let the meal begin"

With this, the Duke had sat in his chair, and all the guests complied with the order, being happy to have a spectacular lunch to forget about the discomfort that the room was involved in.

The food was tasty when Ren had a bite of the free roast smeared with sauce; the touch of the condiments enhanced its flavor with a light smoke, a foreign delight that tasted on a planet that was not Earth, but with the same ancestral preparation of the Arab regions. As he sipped the coffee with spice, Ren felt the cinnamon's pulsing sensation take effect on his palate and throat as it was processed down to his stomach. It was sugary and addictive, like trying a cinnamon-impregnated chocolate bar, but with the melange spice it was another level, a level that went further, as something unique.

The conversation had started with the Guild banker talking about the worm-devoured extractor and the living expense of missing other valuable equipment; Kynes, on the other hand, calmly replied that everything always happened when a worm arrived at the exact time when its prey was found; the trackers were used to detect its presence at long distances, but the creatures were fast when swimming in the interior of the sands, as sharks attacked in the depths of the ocean. The fauna on a planet had to be considered as a risk hazard to the Empire if they wanted to extract the spice or any other mineral that was important for the economy and consumption.

Then the conversation took place in birds and water as important pieces in ecological systems that achieved a balance with the environment and humans as the dominant species in each world they inhabited; until they focused on him.

They asked him some questions about his dedication and justification by awarding the title of Judge of Change to a young boy who has a life ahead of him. Most of the questions were raised by the mother of the ducal heir, Lady Jessica, whose observant and focused features reminded her of Sae when he was questioned in the SIU building.

Ren proceeded to tell his story in a mock manner, trying not to draw attention to himself in his gestures by speaking without hesitation, lying in front of everyone about his occupation as a simple student who recently graduated from the academy, whose percentage had drawn attention the Emperor Padishah and the Landsraad Council to be the Judge of Change in the dispute between the Atreides and the Harkonnen. He did not give information about his friends or family, since he preferred to leave them out of mention so that he did not attract attention.

Ren knew that his friends were going on with their lives after Yaldabaoth's defeat: Ryuji strived to become the best atlestist, Makoto managed to agree to be in a university where he would be a police officer like his father was, Yusuke proved to be an excellent Painter by sending them with fascinating details, Haru would take over running her father's business to wash her name for the sins Kunikazu Okumura committed, Ann debuted in modeling as the most beautiful model, and Futaba earned high marks in Shujin for her great intellect in the area of mathematics and physics. It was impressive that this Metaverse experience had changed the lives of seven young people marginalized from society into influential people who had risen like the ashes of a phoenix in a sea of darkness.

Having finished dinner, and all the guests have gone to their respective residential homes, Ren and Morgana hid in a corner, where the phase of their mission began.

A few minutes before the alaba loomed on the horizon, Ren and Morgana, both in their Phantom Thieves forms, scoured the room in search of Duke Leto; the city's shields were deactivated and the Harkonnen ships sailed the night sky. The invasion of the city had begun, and it was a matter of time to protect him and his family.

In a corner they found him, where a subject just attacked him from the rear. Ren kicked at the attacker's back, hitting him against a wall and with Morgana pinning him on top.

Ren knelt down and applied a healing spell to him and the injured housekeeper.

"Amamiya? ... Is that you?" the Duke began to say, confused, coming out of his stupor. "But what about those clothes ?!" His gaze shifted to Morgana's cartoonish form. "What is that thing...!"

"It's a monster!" Mapes exclaimed in horror.

"There is no time to explain!" Ren blurted out. "The city is being invaded right now"

"The invaded city?" the Duke questioned, and his eyes widened. "The Harkonnen have launched their attack! The city's shields!"

"That is what I was trying to warn you, my lord," Mapes had said. "He just deactivated the defense shields at the right time when I followed him into the control room," he pointed out to the man that Morgana was keeping him confined.

"Yueh?" Leto recognized his family doctor, shocked. "Yueh, what did you just do! Why did you do it?!"

"My lord ..." begged the doctor who was in a face-down position, caught by the cat. "I did it because I had no choice" she sobbed. "Baron Harkonnen has a very pressured person for me ... If I did the job to the letter, he would free my wife"

"Your wife?" Leto frowned. "But was your wife not dead?"

"I thought so, but I got the statement that she was alive confined in a Giedi Prime prison. I had to betray him so that Wanna was alive. I deactivated the shields and I planned a trap against the Baron; I was going to knock him unconscious to implant you a fake tooth containing poisonous gas to kill the Baron"

"It is an ingenious plan" Morgana agreed, standing on top of his body, letting him imprison him. "I understand that you had personal reasons for carrying out your revenge, which can be justified by remembering an acquaintance of ours who did the same"

He was reminded of the attitude Akechi had taken by pretending to be a double agent who was trying to get revenge against Shido for his mother's suicide; He betrayed the Phantom Thieves to gain the trust of the corrupt politician, but what he obtained was a betrayal in the boiler rooms of the Palace by a cognitive duplicate for being useless. Both had similar attitudes when losing a loved one, and the two did everything necessary to fulfill their tasks: Yueh wanted his wife and Akechi honored the death of their mother. The end justified the means.

"He did it for reasons for the loss of a loved one, in that I can understand it" Ren pointed out with the word. "You can swear revenge against the person who took your wife away, but sometimes revenge can corrupt you when you allow yourself to be blinded and take actions that could harm you. But today is not the right time to discuss it; everyone must get out of here now!"

"Smuggler Tuek, my lord!" exclaimed the housekeeper. "He is waiting for you and your family to get out of here"

"True!"

"Don't worry" Ren said calmly, raising his red gloved hand. "Morgana and I will protect his wife and son"

The Duke's eyes narrowed and narrowed.

"Are you telling me that that thing is your pet?"

"Maybe it's a guardian spirit" Mapes suggested with a look focused on the cat that was sweating comically.

"When we see each other, we'll talk about it," Morgana said with a smile, then became serious. "The first thing is to find Lady Jessica and her son"

"They are in their rooms around the corner," added Yueh. "If you can find them in time, I want you to take them to the port where a thopter has the survival tools. In the first one on the right and go south; there Duncan will pick them up in time"

"I understand," Ren agreed. "And what will you do?"

Yueh clenched her fists tight until they were stiff and white; A decisive countenance flashed on his face.

"I have some pending accounts with the Baron" he looked at them sideways and solemn. "You do what you must do"

Ren nodded, and together with Morgana, they ran down the hall.

* * *

"Arsene!" Ren proclaimed by invoking his Persona in the room overrun by enemy soldiers and him with Baron Harkonnen himself in it. Arsene attacked with a blizzard nebula that hovered over the invaders, slamming them against the walls. The obese Baron Harkonnen had been crushed by a layer of his own soldiers as rubble.

"Lady Jessica, Paul" Morgana pointed to the mother and son who were tied and covered in their mouths by the handkerchiefs. "Don't worry, I'll free you"

Morgana used sharp nails and released them from their restraints.

"You! I saw you in that suit in my dreams!" Paul reacted. "And you with that appearance too!"

"We will explain later," said Ren, "but we must go and run to the hangar."

"Wait a minute" Jessica objected, in the middle of the flight. "What about me...?"

"The Duke is well, Lady Jessica" Morgana calmed him. "He and the housekeeper just escaped this instant; they must have fled in the smuggler's ship."

Jessica remembered the man with the scar on his face during dinner, laughing at the teasing that the water carrier was talking about: Did he decide to help them? At least that was a miracle, more with the appearance of the boy with his extravagant robber suit and his monstrous pet. Who was going to say that his son's prophetic dreams came true.

After all, fate could be rewritten by the flow of an unidentified centrifugal force ... an anomaly to be precise, and she felt at peace with it.

During their journey, they had encountered Harkonnen soldiers who pointed laser weapons at them, but were repelled by the two beings Ren and Morgana had summoned; Jessica would make sure she got information how they managed to do such a thing that stunned her and her son.

In the light of the two sister moons that illuminated a starry night blazing from the enemy invasion, the four entered the hangar where they quickly entered the thopter that the doctor had said. The door opened automatically; Paul took the pilot's seat and his mother in the passenger seat, Ren and Morgana sat in the back. The door closed, and the thopter rose with its wings retracted, heading south along the Shield Wall.

"Do you know how to pilot?" Morgana asked.

"Well, let's say I have learned how to operate them," said Paul, piloting the contraption with great care, his eyes fixed on the great expanse of the dunes bathed in the light of the twin moons as they flew over the crest of the enormous Wall. Shield.

Ren spotted a square object in the pilot's seat; He picked it up with his red gloved hands, and showed it to everyone.

"What is that?" Morgana asked.

"A package" Ren replied. "Yueh had stored it in this vehicle; it contains a survival kit"

"Did you say Yueh?" Paul replied, stunned. "Did you just say Dr. Wellington Yueh?"

The Phantom Thieves duo looked at each other, hesitant to tell him the truth, but it was better to do it in the midst of the circumstances they were in.

"Yueh was responsible for cutting the electricity off the shields in the emergency room," Ren explained. "He did it because he thinks the Harkonnen have his wife in captivity"

That surprised Jessica.

"Is your wife alive?"

Ren shrugged his shoulders.

"There is a slight chance that she is alive, or that she is dead, serving as an excuse for him to do his job which is to destroy them"

Mother and son were troubled by the revelation Ren gave them; It was impossible that the doctor who had always been with them as a family member had betrayed them like this, but he did it for a greater cause, a cause of seeing his wife back safe and sound.

Jessica, being a Bene Gesserit, she knew that Wanna was long dead; The Harkonnen are known to be treacherous people who use the word of others at their own convenience to rise to power. Using that dead Bene Gesserit wife was a ploy for Yueh to turn against them, even her features denoted a tense and sad expression, without her assuming that they were the features of a close betrayal. Even with the Imperial Conditioning on his forehead that prohibited killing someone, the force of love was very intense between two people who are destined to be together.

Sometimes life was cruel at times.

"And what should we do now?" Paul asked, breaking the tense silence that filled the cabin.

"Park there," he pointed a finger at Ren toward a sprawling dune blanket with a mound of stones like a hill. "Yueh explained that this has a tracker chip where Duncan Idaho will pick us up."

"Okay ..." Paul agreed, landing the flying vehicle on the sandy mantle with a vibration. The door had opened, and the four of them went outside

The four watched in silence towards the Shield Wall in the middle of the sea of dunes that transmitted ghostly paths in the dark. Ren looked around, seeing the rocky crag that pointed out into the desert like a beach overrun by the sea, and later the palisades sculpted by the winds. Then they saw an ornithopter flying at night and heading towards them, being relieved that they had help from the closest relative they had so far.

* * *

**See you in the next chapter.  
**


End file.
